ELON, N.C. – After a two-week layoff of competing as a team, the Elon University cross country programs take their first road trip of the season as the Phoenix heads to compete at the Greater Louisville Classic on Saturday, Oct. 1, at the E.P. Tom Sawyer Park. The men’s 8K gold race begins at 9:45 a.m. followed by the women’s 5K gold race at 10:30 a.m.
“We’re heading to our first big meet of the year,” said Elon head cross country coach Nick Polk. “It means that we are starting our competitive part of the season. I saw the first half of the season already being over and now we are making the push towards the conference and regional championships.”
Despite not competing as a full team in over two weeks, it hasn’t hindered the training for both programs.
“Training has been going great, really well,” said Polk. “Everything has been focused on starting the season over again right now. Most of the team haven’t raced for almost a month so really we’ve just been putting the focus on the second half of the season. This weekend will the first time that all the women are running together in one group so that’ll be fun to see, putting the team together going forward.”
Follow @EU_XCTF
Updates of the meet will be posted on Twitter at the programs’ handle, @EU_XCTF. Other updates will also be provided at the handle, @elonscores.
About the Field
The Phoenix will face a highly competitive field at the Greater Louisville Classic with 24 total teams on the men’s side and 29 on the women. Regionally, the Elon women rank No. 9 overall in the Southeast Region and will see No. 4 Virginia Tech, No. 11 Louisville and No. 12 Eastern Kentucky among notable regional competitors. On the men’s side, the Phoenix men harriers will face regional foes No. 1 Eastern Kentucky, No. 4 Virginia Tech, No. 7 Louisville and No. 12 and in-state rival Davidson.
“There are going to be a lot of good teams in the region at this meet,” said Polk. “There will be a lot of good teams from other regions as well. It will be a good point to see where we are at this point in the season. It’s like restarting the season since it’s been so long since we’ve raced and it will be the first time that we are racing as a full team, but I expect for us to go out and compete really well.”
Elon Invitational Recap
The Phoenix last competed as team at its second home meet, the Elon Invitational, on Sept. 10. The maroon and gold swept the field as the men’s squad captured the 8K race with 20 points while the women’s team tallied 15 points after taking the top five spots in the race.
Freshman Richie Kasper was Elon’s top finisher in the men’s race with his time of 27:07 as the runner-up. Fellow rookie Ian Mickool was third with his time of 27:26 while Michael Germinario was fourth at 27:39. Carlos Andino also claimed a top-five spot with a time of 27:41 while Justin Leopold rounded out the top-five scores with a sixth-place standing and a time of 27:43.
In the women’s 5K, Coralea Geraniotis won her first career race after the Orleans, Mass., native clocked a 18:48. Brigid Brennan finished second with a time of 18:56 and senior Shelby Cuddeback was third at 19:03. Corey Weiss was next to follow with a time of 19:48 while rookie Molly Offstein closed out the top-five with a 20:17.
For their efforts, Kasper and Geraniotis were named the Colonial Athletic Association Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Runners of the Week, respectively, on Sept. 13. It was the first career weekly honor for both athletes and the third overall between both teams this season.
Up Next
Following Greater Louisville Classic, the teams will split as majority of the group heads to High Point, N.C., to race at the VertKlasse XC Invitational on Friday, Oct. 14. Other select members will head to the NCAA Pre-Nationals a day later in Terre Haute, Ind.