Cross country teams face couple of new wrinkles in 2013 schedules

Cross country teams face couple of new wrinkles in 2013 schedules


View 2013 men's cross country schedule

View 2013 women's cross country schedule

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. -- Tennessee Tech's women's and men's cross country teams have some familiar outings ahead, but will also see a couple of new wrinkles in the 2013 schedule which was announced this week by coach Tony Cox.

"This year's schedule is a little bit different than it has been in past years," Cox said. "We are going to a new meet at Western Carolina, we're returning to a couple of meets that we didn't go to last year, and we've moved the date of our own Invitational up about a month from when we've been running it."

Tech's only new meet this season will be the Western Carolina Invitational, a Friday evening event in the wooded hills of Cullowhee, N.C., that opens the 2013 season on August 30. The men's 8K race gets underway at 6 p.m. CT.

A week later, Tech will host the annual TTU Invitational at Southern Hills Golf Course. The meet has been held on a Friday afternoon through the years, and this year's event moves to a 5 p.m. starting gun.

After missing the event for four years, the Golden Eagles return to the Vanderbilt Invitational for the second consecutive year. That meet will be held on Saturday morning, Sept. 14, in Nashville.

"We returned to the Vanderbilt meet last year for the first time in about four years," Cox said. "It's a meet that our runners always seem to enjoy, there's very good competition, and we usually have a good fan following at the Vandy meet."

The fourth week of the schedule sends Tech to the Jacksonville State Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 5, while the final regular season action is the familiar Evansville Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 19.

The culmination of the season is the Ohio Valley Conference championships, which will be hosted this year by Morehead State on Saturday, Nov. 2, at the Eagle Trace Golf Course.

"It's been quite some time since we've run on that course," Cox said. "Nobody currently on our roster has seen that course, so it will be fun to see how they approach the new layout."

The NCAA South Regional meet will be hosted by the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa on Friday, Nov. 15.