By Rob Schabert, Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Information
View the FSU NCAA South Regional web page
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – They have a chance to make history Friday morning. Tennessee Tech distance runners Geoffrey Sambu and Brennan Huber are in Florida where they will compete in the NCAA South Regional in a quest to become the first Golden Eagle cross country runners to qualify for the national championships later in the month, and to earn All-South Regional laurels.
Leaders on the team throughout the season, Sambu and Huber have established school records and posted times that could possibly earn them spots in the national meet.
They are the lone runners from Tech in the field that includes distance specialists from 27 different schools throughout the region. The two top teams in the meet advance to the NCAA championships in Terre Haute, Ind., Nov. 22. In addition, the top four individual finishers who are not members of the two top teams will also earn spots in the national championship field.
"I'm very excited to see how Geoffrey and Brennan will do at the NCAA Regional Championships," said first-year TTU head coach Wayne Angel. "Their training has been exceptional.
"Sambu is in the best shape of his life. He was 45th in this meet last year (as a member of Angel's Florida A&M team). I think he is on a rendezvous with destiny. Geoffrey has a chance to make history by becoming the first ever cross country athlete from Tennessee Tech to be named to the All-South Region team as well as earn a spot to the NCAA Cross Country Championships."
Huber has been second on the team to Sambu in every meet in 2014, and has also placed his name in the Tech records book.
"I feel that this meet will give Brennan the experience necessary to make him an outstanding athlete in the future," Angel added.
Sambu's time of 24:28.18 at the OVC Championships on Nov. 1 established a school record for an 8K cross country race, breaking the mark he had established nearly two months earlier. A sophomore from Nakura, Kenya, who transferred to Tech following one season at FAMU, Sambu owns five of the 13 fastest 8K times in program history.
Huber, meanwhile, posted his own career-best of 25:05.41 at the OVC meet, a time that broke the school record that stood prior to Sambu's arrival on campus this season. Huber, a sophomore from Greenbrier, Tenn., owns four of the top 15 times in program history.
On Thursday morning, the runners and coaches will spend time on the 8K course at the Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee, inspecting the route.
The course will open Friday at 6:30 a.m. for competitors to begin on-site preparations and warm-ups for the race. Following the national anthem at 8:35 a.m., the first gun will sound, providing the runners a 30-minute alert to race time. With guns also giving 20- and 10-minute alerts, the racers will line up for the 10 a.m. starting gun for the men's race. The women's 6K race will start at 9 a.m.
Huber will wear bib number 414, while Sambu will don number 415. They will run in a large field that includes runners from Alabama, Auburn, Belmont, Chattanooga, East Tennessee State, Florida, Florida Atlantic, Florida Gulf Coast, Florida State, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Jacksonville State, Kennesaw State, Lipscomb, Memphis, Mercer, Middle Tennessee State, Mississippi State, Mississippi, North Florida, Samford, South Alabama, South Florida, Tennessee, UT Martin and Vanderbilt, in addition to Tennessee Tech.
The Apalachee Regional Park cross country course (7550 Apalachee Parkway, Tallahassee, FL 32311), developed by the Leon County Recreation Department in collaboration with Florida State University athletics and the local Gulf Winds Track Club, was designed with the sport in mind. A series of trails and loops allows for competition to be contested over a wide range of race lengths.
The predominant running surfaces are grass and crushed shell. The width of the course ranges from approximately 150 meters at the starting line and is significantly wider than 25 meters through the first 800 meters, where it narrows to 15 meters at the 1,000m mark. The course meets and actually exceeds the 10-meter width requirement at all points through the finish chute following the recent completion of a $250,000 widening and renovation project.
