Cross Country To Run In American Championship On Saturday
Oct 30, 2015 | Cross Country
Coach Peterson's Comments Entering The American Championship
NEW ORLEANS - The Tulane University cross country teams will look to spook the competition at the 2015 American Athletic Conference Championship as the Green Wave will run for the league title with a Halloween Day showdown at Lake Kristi in Grimesland, North Carolina.
The men's 8K race is slated to get started at 9 a.m. (CDT) with the women's 6K run beginning at 10:40 a.m. Both races will be streamed live on the American Digital Network and can be viewed once the races start by clicking HERE. In their first season as members of The American, the Green Wave men finished seventh and the women came in eighth. Tulane's last cross country conference crown came in 2001 when the men emerged victorious.
"Both teams have worked very hard to get to this point in the season and we're all very excited about getting into the postseason," Tulane head coach Eric Peterson said. "The conference championship marks that date on the schedule that initiates the postseason and championship faze of our schedule. I know that all of our athletes are very excited to be at this point and we're going in with a real optimistic attitude about what we're going to be able to achieve.
"We're a growing program. We still have a lot of young kids that are running in prominent spots on our team, but the nice thing is that we're developing some consistency. We know that winning a conference championship at this point in our program's development is a tall order, but we do certainly expect to finish in the top half of the conference. We want both teams to put together the best race we've had all season and if we can do that, we expect to finish high."
The 2015 American Championship marks the fifth event for Tulane this season. Along the way, both teams won the South Alabama Cross Country Opener on Sept. 4 in Mobile, Alabama while the men finished fourth at the Sundodger Cross Country Invitational on Sept. 19 in Seattle, Washington, 17th in the Gold Race of the Paul Short Run on Oct. 2 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and 22nd in the Black Race of the Pre-Nationals two weeks ago in Louisville, Kentucky. The women, meanwhile, finished eighth at the Sundodger Invite, fourth in the Brown Race at the Paul Short Run and 24th in the Black Race at the Pre-Nationals.
Leading the way for the Green Wave men are sophomore Moses Aloiloi and freshman Emmanuel Rotich while the women are spearheaded by the efforts of sophomores Lauren Bartels and Emma Newton along with the talent of senior Mikayla Sonneborn.
Also running for the men are seniors Nicholas Meloro and Jack White, junior Chris Lowery, redshirt-sophomore Charlie Frishberg and the freshman tandem of Joshua Cheruyot and Pierce Hill. Bartels, Newton and Sonneborn are joined on the women's side by juniors Katharine Smiley and Celeste White, sophomore Madeline Held, Emily-Kathryn Hoey and Jennifer LaMori, and freshman Sarah Marvin.
In their last outing, Newton and Bartels posted the top two showings by an American female participant in the Black Race at the Pre-Nationals with respective times of 21:41.8 and 21:50.2 in the 6K run. Aloiloi, meanwhile, clocked the second-fastest performance by a league male member at 24:39.0 in the 8K event while White had the third-best time by an American male with 25:10.6.
"The Pre-National meet two weeks ago had to be a great learning experience for us," Peterson added. "I think a lot of the younger athletes that don't have very much experience on our team were a little bit shell shocked by how high of a level of competition that meet was, but they've responded well to that. They've been able to get back into a practice routine and push themselves at an even higher level, and the response has been very positive. It wasn't like, `Oh my gosh, this is over my head.' They didn't feel that way at all. We've had two very good weeks of practice since then, we're healthy, and our expectations are high."
Following The American Championship, the Green Wave will head to College Station, Texas, for the NCAA South Central Regional on Nov. 13. While members of the Tulane team will look to put up another solid effort at the regional meet, the team and individuals can earn a spot at the NCAA Championship, which is slated for Nov. 21 in Louisville, Kentucky.
Players Mentioned
