Cross Country Begins 2023 Campaign at UNO Opener

Friday, September 1

New Orleans, LA

6:10 p.m.

Tulane University

New Orleans

Cross Country Begins 2023 Campaign at UNO Opener

Aug 31, 2023 | Cross Country

NEW ORLEANS – The 2023 season opens with high expectations for Tulane University cross country as the team starts the year at the UNO XC Opener hosted by the University of New Orleans.

"We look forward to opening up on the other side of town in front of a lot of our fans," director of cross country/track and field Adrian Myers said. "This meet will serve as a good early season benchmark against some very strong competition on the women's side including LSU that just missed the national championships last fall, and New Orleans that won the Southland last year."

The meet will be held at Lake Oaks Park with races beginning just after 6 p.m. The women will open the meet running a 4K at 6:10 p.m. followed by the men competing in a 5K at approximately 6:45 p.m.

Tulane's men's cross country team finished first in the 2022 UNO XC Opener while the Wave women's team posted a second-place finish at the meet.

The Green Wave men enter the season ranked third in the South Central Region by U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. Tulane's men's team also garnered honorable mention in The Stride Report Preseason D1 XC rankings as one of the teams on the fringes of a top 25 spot. The Tulane women will begin the 2023 campaign ranked seventh in the South Central Region.

"As any high aspiring program will say, we are training through the weekend to stack up work that we can cash out in October and November," Myers stated. "We truly believe we have a men's and women's program that will both compete for an AAC title and NCAA National Championship bid in November."

Dillard, Nicholls, Louisiana-Lafayette, LSU, Southeastern, Southern, UNO, and Xavier complete the rest of the field along with Tulane for the meet. The LSU women's team finished just shy of qualifying for the NCAA Championships finishing third in the region in 2022 and the UNO women's squad is coming off a Southland Conference championship last season.

Sixteen runners are scheduled to race for the Green Wave women's team and nine on the men's squad in the first meet of the season. Representing the women will be Brianna Braver, Janae Dean, Danna Diaz, Brenda Ellis, Lili Grant, Abigail Heck, Ashley Horwitz, Brianna Kirsch, Sophia McNerney, Reese Ragland, Gemma Rebollo, Andrea Santos, Alex Sharp, Amanda Soldan, Macy Turcotte, and Paula Vaquera. Freshman and Czech Republic National Champion Lily Bell will not compete for the Wave as she prepares for the Southern Showcase.

On the men's side, Tulane will be represented by Ryan Adkins, Alan Deogracias III, Juan Giron, Jack Jennings, Arturs Lapins, Bradley Makuvire, Parker Orlowsky, Landon Roemer, and Albert Tawil-Brown. Makuvire along with transfers Adkins and Jennings each competed in the 2022 NCAA Championships.

"We said we could get into this position and quickly, now we're here and have to back it up. It starts this weekend here in New Orleans, no better place to be," Myers said.

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