Coach Peterson's Comments Entering The Paul Short Run
Oct 1, 2015 | Cross Country
On the Paul Short Run
"It's a big meet. There are a lot of teams, primarily from the Northeast, that attend and participate in this meet and it's a great opportunity for us to go and expose our student-athletes to competition in a different part of the country. This is the second year in a row that we've been invited to participate in the Paul Short Run, and I felt that we got a lot of out of the meet a year ago. It's very competitive and it's just the right level of invitational for our program right now."
On the format of the Paul Short Run
"The Paul Short Run is a meet that has different sections and different divisions of competition. The Gold Race for both men and women is a highest-level race and the highest level of competition. Our men will be competing in that event. The Brown Race is a larger field – more teams participate in that race – and it's a little bit lower level of competition. That's where our women will be competing this weekend. It really gives both of our teams the opportunity to compete at the appropriate level for where we are in terms of experience and depth. We're really looking forward to having a good experience up there."
On how his teams have performed so far this season
"Both teams are competing pretty well right now. The men, I believe, have made a little more progress than even I anticipated at this time. We're led by Moses Aloiloi and Emmanuel Rotich, who had his first race of his career at Tulane two weeks ago in Seattle, and the other guys are doing a really good job. Chris Lowery has had two really good weeks of practice since the Seattle meet. Jack White, Pierce Hill and Nick Meloro have been consistently good, so they're ready to step up and challenge themselves in the Gold Race this weekend. The women are also doing well. We're led by Emma Newton and it was great to have Lauren Bartels back in the lineup in Seattle. She had been off from competition due to injury for quite a while – really since the end of the last cross country season – and it was great to see her come back in strong fashion and open up her season with a really good race. Mikayla Sonneborn has been really, consistently good for us and she brings a greater level of experience being the only senior on the team. Behind those three, we really need to find more consistency from the group and I think we're going to get it this weekend. We've got very capable athletes in Sarah Marvin, Sara Kebede and Emily-Kathryn Hoey. They're all very capable of getting the job done. We just need them to perform a little better than they have."
On what he expects from his teams at the Paul Short Run
"I think our women are capable of placing at the top five, team wise. That would be a great accomplishment for them, knowing that there are probably about 40 teams competing in that race. On the men's side, because it's probably the stiffest level of competition the men have been in in quite a while, we're looking to place in the Top 15. If we get the really high level of running at the front of our team again from Moses and Emmanuel, then I think we'll really have an opportunity to do that."
Players Mentioned
