Tennessee’s cross country team will be racing again this weekend after a long two-week break following the Georgia Bulldog SEC preview.
The Vols will be participating in the 44th edition of the annual Paul Short Run at Leigh University in Pennsylvania. Nearly 450 colleges are set to compete at the event.
Beth Alford-Sullivan, director of track and field and cross country, expressed her excitement for her squad to experience the multitudes of runners and teams expected at the event.
“The beauty of our sport is, instead of one team playing one other team, we get to play all these other teams at the same time, so we’ll see teams from all across the nation,” Alford-Sullivan said. “It’s great competition to run Tennessee versus UCLA or Tennessee versus Villanova up north.
“It’s great to have that in our sport.”
Tennessee will be exposed to some of the nation’s top competitors Friday, with defending champion Iona College on the men’s side and the women’s defending champion, Yale University, both taking part in the events.
The Tennessee women’s team won the race once in 2004. The men have yet to match them.
There will be a total of 18 athletes running for the Vols on Friday, with 10 on the men’s side and eight for the women.
Zach Long during an interview on Sept. 20, 2017.
For the men, juniors Zach Long and Wesley Robinson will lead the pack. They will be joined by freshmen Conner Hawkins, Alex Crigger and John Elrod, sophomores Adam Johnston and Gashaw Duhamel, junior Brad Swiney and seniors Andre Hillsman and Drew Kelley also representing Tennessee.
Both Long and Robinson finished top-10 in the Georgia Bulldog SEC Preview earlier this month.
On the women’s side, a new addition to the Tennessee roster will be making her official debut at this week’s run. Niamh Schumacher, a freshman from Seymour, Tenn., will be running for her first time as a Vol.
Schumacher was an individual cross-country champion twice in high school and selected as an All-American her senior season.
Schumacher has said she is excited to be racing for Tennessee this week and hopes to begin her career in a memorable way.
“I’m very excited to make my college debut at Paul Short,” Schumacher said. “I know Paul Short is a very big event, so it will be a great opportunity to run a fast time. I am nervous, but I’m mainly just excited to race in orange and white for the first time.”
Running alongside Schumacher will be fellow freshmen Abigail Smith, Alania Riordan and Taylor Luthringer, sophomore Megan Murray and juniors Emma Reed, Cassidy Giles and Peighton Meske.
Megan Murray during an interview on Sept. 20, 2017.
Murray will look to further her strong college running career stats, as the Knoxville native finished in eighth place at the Bulldog SEC Preview and finished first place for Tennessee in every race that she competed in during her freshman season.
Tennessee’s men will be running an 8K race, while the women will take part in a 6K race.
The race will begin Friday, Sept. 29 at 9:30 a.m.
