The men's and women's cross country teams will both race in
their third meet of the season on Saturday, October 1st at Oatlands
Plantation in Leesburg, Virginia. This
will be Mason's first and only home meet of the season. The men are coming off a second place finish
at the Delaware Invitational where they saw senior Robert Reynolds and sophomore
Michael Conway finish first and second overall, respectively. The women finished third place overall led by
a junior Rochelle Sceats and her eighth place finish.
"Our home course is actually one of the more difficult
courses we run all season, so we will use this as a toughening race," said Head
Coach Andrew Gerard. "We expect to make
progress, our goal is to always try to get everyone working together by the
last regular season meet of the year."
The men's team, currently ranked 10th in the
region, has benefitted from a variety of runners having early season
success. The women are looking to
improve on having a more complete race from all of their runners.
"This is our third race, and we are looking to put it all
together this weekend," said Associate Head Coach Sita Waru-Ewell. "Our top three or four ran great at our first
meet at Mt. St. Mary's, and in our meet in Delaware we flipped that and our
four through ten runners ran great. So
now we are trying to put it all together where all 12 runners run great."
The women finished first in the Mason Invitational last year
and will look to make it two straight victories at home. The men, led by senior Everett Hackett's
fourth place finish, placed second overall last season.
" We try to have each meet be a stepping stone to better
things, so by the championship races, each championship will be our best race
of that season," concluded Gerard.
"The girls are fired up and excited about racing at home,
the whole track team will be out there supporting, along with a lot of family
and friends," added Ewell. We have been
having really tough training weeks where everyone has been looking great and we
will be disappointed if we come out of this weekend without a win."
Mason will face off against UDC, George Washington, Harcum
(men), Howard, JMU (women), Prince George's CC, St. Francis (Pa.), Wayne St.
and UNCW this weekend. The men will race at 10am on Saturday; followed at its
conclusion by the start of the women's race.
