By Layne Weitzel, TTU Sports Information

NASHVILLE – Tennessee Tech women's cross country heads west this weekend for an appearance at the Commodore Classic. The meet, which is hosted by Vanderbilt, will be run on the Vaughn's Gap Cross Country Course at Percy Warner Park on Saturday morning.

The women's 5k is set to go off at 10 a.m. CT. Tech is up against a field featuring:

• Austin Peay
• Belmont (13^th in the latest South Region rankings)
• Butler (ninth in the latest Great Lakes Region rankings)
• Eastern Michigan (21^st in the latest NCAA DI Women's National Coaches' Poll)
• IUPUI
• Kennesaw State
• Lipscomb (seventh in the latest South Region rankings)
• Miami (OH) [12^th in the Great Lakes Region rankings]
• Middle Tennessee
• Missouri (14^th in the latest NCAA DI Women's National Coaches' Poll)
• Ohio State (sixth in the latest Great Lakes Region rankings)
• SIU Carbondale
• Vanderbilt (third in the latest South Region rankings)
• Western Kentucky
• Xavier

"The ladies are very excited about competing in the Commodore Classic this weekend," said head coach Wayne Angel. "They have worked very hard and are anticipating some good performances."

The team last competed at the beginning of the month in its home Golden Eagle Invitational, individually finishing in fourth, 18^th, 22^nd and 27^th place. Since that meet, Tech has added Purity Sanga to its roster. She will run this weekend, while Courtney McCowan will take the meet off with an injury.

Tech last appeared at the Commodore Classic nearly a year ago today. The Golden Eagles placed 22^nd out of 25 teams, with Micayla Rennick finishing 78^th in 18:30.2 and Madison Stremler timing 21:10.7.

"This meet will be an opportunity for them to work on closing the gap between our first and fifth runners," said Angel. "We'll look to develop some chemistry and leadership from Micayla and Anna (Cooper)."

Photo by Jim Dillon