The Emory men’s and women’s cross country teams opened their seasons on Aug. 30 at the Jacksonville State University (Ala.) Strut’s Opener in Oxford, Ala. Both teams had impressive showings, with the women’s side finishing fourth out of 14 teams and the men’s side coming in first out of 15 teams.
Newly appointed Head Coach Linh Nguyen was excited to start the season but was not fixated on the first meet.
“The first race is not really a focus,” Nguyen said. “It’s more about training and preparing for future races.”
The women’s team posted several impressive times in the 4K race, leading to an average time of 15:52.50 for the first seven runners and a total of 109 points. Sophomore Bella Racette led the Eagles, finishing in 14th place with a time of 15:15. Freshmen Leah Clark and Annika Urban crossed the line soon after, finishing in 22nd and 23rd place, respectively.
The rest of the Eagles followed quickly, fighting through their final strides to beat out members of the other teams by seconds, and sometimes milliseconds. Junior Ana Morris (16:05, 26th place) and freshman Shana Fitzmaurice (16:10, 28th place) accounted for the rest of the scored runners. All the runners that contributed to the score finished within a minute of Racette.
Nguyen noted that his team showed consistency, which will be useful in the future.
“Consistency is one of the keys to doing well,” he said. “Hopefully we can make that spread a little tighter and we [can] move toward the front of the races.”
The men’s cross country team registered four of the top seven runners to cross the finish line. Junior Jack Whetstone led the field, clocking a 5K time of 15:31. Nine seconds later, sophomore Spencer Moore crossed the line for the Eagles as the fourth finisher overall. The final three scorers to finish for the team were junior Matt Dillon (15:44, sixth place), sophomore Brett Lucas (15:45, seventh place) and sophomore Jon Marcus (15:50, 11th place).
Whetstone was named the University Athletic Association (UAA) Men’s Cross Country Athlete of the Week this year. It’s the second time in Whetstone’s career that he was honored with the award.
Nguyen was proud of his teams’ performance in lieu of his arrival at Emory.
“Both men and women are adjusting to a new coach and training philosophy and working really hard,” Nguyen acknowledged. “I was very happy with their performances.”
The team will race again on Sept. 13 when they travel to Chattanooga, Tenn., to participate in the University of Tennessee Twilight Meet.
