COOKEVILLE, Tenn. -- Another chellenging race is in store Saturday for the Tennessee Tech men's and women's cross country teams when they run in the Commodore Classic, hosted by Vanderbilt University. The races will take place at the Vaughn's Gap Cross Country Course at Percy Warner Park in Nashville.
A total of 26 schools will participate, including teams from the Big Ten, ACC, SEC, Conference USA and Ohio Valley Conference. The talent-rich field includes 18 teams who appear in the latest USTFCCCA regional rankings.
“I am very excited about the upcoming competition,” said Golden Eagle head coach Wayne Angel. "The last five weeks have been very tough and we are finally rounding into a respectable level of fitness.
“Our athletes are excited about being able to compete so close to home," he added. "I am confident that we will have some very good individual as well as team performances this weekend.”
The men will run an 8K course with starting gun slated for 9 a.m. CT. he women's 5K race will begin at 10 a.m.
The lineup for the men's squad includes Joshua Daughtry, Amos Kipchirchir, Timothy Misoy, Noah Rotich, Geoffrey Sambu, and Daniel Williamson. Last year at the Commodore Classic, Sambu set a school record of 24:41 -- a mark he would break about two months later.
The Tech's women's lineup will include Sonel Bezuidenhout, Sarah Brandt, Molly Griffin, Angela Jepchirchir, Purity Murray, Jenna Storms, and Madison Stremler.
According to the Polls: On the women's side, seven of the South Region's 15 ranked teams will be involved in the Classic, including No. 1 Vanderbilt, No. 3 Lipscomb, No. 4 Miss. State, No. 9 Ole Miss, No. 10 Georgia Tech, No. 14 Belmont and No. 15 MTSU. The women's field also features a pair of teams ranked in the Southeast Region (No. 7 Louisville and No. 15 Clemson) and two more from the Great Lakes Region (No. 3 Michigan and No. 5 Ohio State). The men's field features five ranked teams from the South Region (No. 4 MTSU, No. 7 Georgia Tech, No. 9 Lipscomb, No. 12 Miss. State and No. 14 Belmont), along with one ranked team from the Southeast Region (No. 7 Louisville) and one from the Great Lakes Region (No. 10 Ohio State).
