Cross Country Travels to USC Upstate Invitational
10/15/2010 5:07:00 PM | Track & Field/XC
STATESBORO, Ga. - The Eagle Cross Country team travels to Spartanburg, S.C., this weekend to compete in the USC Upstate Invitational. The 5K race begins at 10 a.m. on Saturday, October 16th and will be held at Milliken Research Park, adjacent to the USC Upstate campus. This is the Eagles first trip back to Milliken Park since visiting twice in 2008 for both the USC Upstate meet and the Southern Conference Championships. Georgia Southern joins nine other teams in the Invitational, including USC Upstate, East Tennessee State and Southern Conference member Wofford.
This weekend's race is the last of the regular season before this year's Southern Conference championship and Head Cross Country Coach Natalie Smith is expecting solid efforts from the runners selected to compete. In particular, Coach Smith is looking for big things from runners Heather McAllister (Cartersville, Ga.), Sara Curry (Lawrenceville, Ga.), and Azura Robillard (Altamonte Springs, Fla.), who displayed great competitiveness on the grueling course for the Augusta State Invitational last week.
"We are looking forward to running this week, competing in our third meet in a row," said Smith. "Only two weeks away from the conference championships, this will tell our coaching staff a lot about our student-athletes' training and their minds are."
Three current members of the Eagles have some familiarity with the course as senior Kassie Lee (Elberton, Ga.), Robillard and junior Brittani Martin (Alpharetta, Ga.) all ran at the 2008 Southern Conference championships held at the same venue. Lee recorded her then-personal best in the 5K with a mark of 19:49.53. Smith hopes they will use that previous experience to their advantage and maximize this opportunity.
Results from the USC Upstate Invitational will be posted on GeorgiaSouthernEagles.com/crosscountry with updates available at twitter.com/GSScores and facebook.com/GSAthletics.
