This upcoming Saturday, Oct. 5, both the men and women's cross country teams will travel to Louisville, Ky. to compete in the Greater Louisville Classic at Tom Sawyer State Park.
The women's team will compete at 11:30 a.m. in the 6K race along with 50 other schools, including many of the "B" teams of Division I schools such as Marquette University (Wisc.) and Vanderbilt University (Tenn.).
The men's team will compete in the 8K race at 10:45 a.m. against 41 other schools.
The women's team is coming off a fourth place finish at the Charlotte Invitational, where senior Emily Caesar placed ninth and junior Marissa Gogniat placed 11th among runners from Division III schools. Their times would have placed 25th and 29th respectively among the Division I runners.
The men's team is coming off a third place finish at the Charlotte Invitational. Senior Alex Fleischhacker placed tenth and fellow senior Eddie Mulder placed 18th among Division III runners. Their times would have placed 20th and 34th among the Division I runners respectively.
Previously, the women's team had placed first in all three meets until Charlotte, while the men's team has placed in the top three at every meet they have competed in.
The women's team recently received good news. Senior Meredith Lorch, the team's sixth best runner a year ago, will make her debut at the Greater Louisville Classic. Her added presence will give the team a boost.
The men's team is still without Lukas Mees, who won Emory's Most Valuable Runner and Rookie of the Year awards last year. He is recovering from an infection in his back. His return date is still unknown.
Like many of the early season races, the primary objective of the upcoming Greater Louisville Classic is to establish who the top runners are. It will give younger runners more experience competing at the Division III level. Additionally, most runners at the high school level compete in the 5K. Conversely, at the Division III level, the women's team competes in the 6K, while the men compete in the 8K runs. Early season races provide young runners the chance to compete at further distances than they are used to. Along with added experience, it also gives the runners an opportunity to see where they are, both within the team itself and against their opponents. Lastly, they have the chance to test different strategies.
While the teams are preparing for the upcoming Oberlin Inter-Regional Rumble on Oct. 19 and the UAA Championships on Nov. 2, the team is not overlooking this upcoming event. Every race has its importance and the team has no plans to take the Greater Louisville Classic lightly.
One underrated aspect about the Greater Louisville Classic is travel. Louisville is far from Atlanta and provides the team with an additional mental challenge of extended travel. While in the short term, it's not ideal, in the long term, it will make other long trips seem less taxing.
The temperature conditions could be a factor, but weather forecasts project a high of 84 and a low of 66, warm conditions that are familiar in Atlanta.
– By Shawn Farshchi
Photo courtesy of Emory Athletics
