By Layne Weitzel, TTU Sports Information
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The Tennessee Tech women's cross country team will appear in its second-consecutive SEC school-hosted meet this Saturday at the Mountain Dew Invitational. Tech has never before appeared in the meet.
Hosted by the University of Florida at the Mark Bostick Golf Course, the women's collegiate 5k is scheduled to begin at 7:30 a.m. CT after the men's 8k.
"I am looking for our ladies to continue to build on the momentum from the Commodore Classic last weekend," said head coach Wayne Angel. "They have had some great practices this week. I am looking forward to some breakthrough performances on Saturday."
Tech is up against a field that includes teams from across the southeastern United States:
- Ave Maria
- Bethune-Cookman
- Chipola
- Edward Waters
- Embry-Riddle
- Flagler
- Florida (eighth in the latest USTFCCCA South Region rankings)
- Florida A&M
- Florida Atlantic
- Florida College
- Florida Gulf Coast
- Florida International
- Florida State (fourth in the latest USTFCCCA South Region rankings)
- Florida State College at Jacksonville
- Florida Tech
- Jacksonville
- Keiser
- Miami (FL)
- Mobile
- North Florida (14th in the latest USTFCCCA South Region rankings)
- Oglethorpe
- Palm Beach Atlantic
- Pasco-Hernando State
- Saint Leo
- South Florida
- South Florida State College
- St. Thomas (FL)
- Stetson
- Tallahassee CC
- Tampa
- Troy
- UCF
- Warner
Tech competed just last Saturday at Vanderbilt's Commodore Classic in Nashville, placing 13th as a team to improve nine spots on its 2016 meet finish. Freshman Purity Sanga finished sixth overall with the third-fastest 5k time in Tech history.
This year's running of the Mountain Dew Invitational has been modified due to bad weather from Hurricane Irma that affected course conditions, leading to the high school races being canceled.
