Friday, the Tennessee cross country team will set out for their biggest race of the season so far.
The Vols will be heading to participate in the Southeastern Conference Championships. The SEC Championships in cross country are unlike many other sports offered by a Division l program because there are no second chances.
Tennessee director of track and field/cross country Beth Alford-Sullivan believes the tournament is a culminating event that brings out the best talent in all of the athletes running.
Unlike football, baseball and basketball where you would normally play a season and end up with a conference and overall record, cross country gets one race. That one race is their chance to compete against all of their conference foes and solidify their standing as a unit on the women’s’ and men’s sides.
“The entire program is excited for these teams to head into SEC competition,” Alford-Sullivan said. “We’ve done a lot with growing the program over the years; hopefully you’ll see some of that in the results this weekend,” Alford-Sullivan said.
The race will be held Friday morning in Athens, Georgia at the golf course, a track many of the runners are familiar with. The team ran this same course in the SEC preview race that was held in September.
The men’s 8k race will feature Zach Long and Wesley Robinson — both of whom placed in the top-10 in the SEC preview. Long finishing second overall with Robinson grabbing eighth. Both men are fired up about the opportunity and expect big things from themselves and their teammates.
“”If I can stay patient early and close well at the end, I believe I can surprise some people and be in the top 20,” Robinson said. “As a team, we are very capable of a top-seven finish, a big step up from the past two years,” Robinson said.
The women’s 8k race will be the first SEC Championship for freshman Niamh Schumacher, who has shown progress in her first year here at Tennessee. Schumacher debuted a few races ago in the Paul Short Run, where she started far behind but ended strong.
Sophomore Megan Murray, who grabbed an eighth-place finish in the Paul Short Run, will also be competing for Tennessee.
“There’s no need to feel the pressure because the results will show the kind of physical and mental prep that has been given in practice and in each race leading up to SEC’s,” Murray said.
The race is slated to begin this Friday at the University of Georgia’s Golf Course. The men will begin their 8k race at 10 a.m. and women will run at 11 a.m.
