Blue Raiders Open Season Friday

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - Middle Tennessee's cross country teams open the season Friday at Percy Warner Park at the Belmont Opener, with the men running a 5K race and the women a 4K event on the Vaughan's Creek Course. The men and women head into the year's opening event heading in very opposite directions. The Blue Raider women return all but one runner from last season when the squad posted a third-place finish at the Sun Belt Championships, the team's highest finish since joining the league. Sophomore Ashley Comstock earned All-SBC honors with a fifth-place showing at the SBC meet, the first all-league performer for the women since 1992. Comstock also won individual medalist honors at the Arkansas State Invitational last October, the first Blue Raider female to win an individual meet since 1992. The start of the cross country season will also see the return of three harriers who were injured in January in Murfreesboro after being hit by a car while training - sophomores Kaitlyn Hammond, Tiffany Sawyer and Catherine Chester. Hammond placed 11th at last year's SBC Championships, missing All-SBC honors by just one place and will be returning after a knee injury in January. Chester suffered a broken jaw among other ailments and will also make her return, while Sawyer, who suffered the brunt of the injuries during the hit-and-run accident, will be back after overcoming a broken pelvis, broken arm, and several burns on her legs. The Blue Raider women also got a nice surprise this summer when it was discovered that Sara Lunning, who placed 24th in the 2005 SBC Championships, has another year of eligibility remaining. Lunning transferred to Middle Tennessee from Lansing Community College in Michigan but did not participate in track and cross country as a freshman at Lansing. Junior Marjorie Gombert was 25th at last year's Sun Belt meet and will be a major contributor after a solid track season in the spring. Sophomore Ashleigh Thaler adds depth to an improving squad, as will incoming freshman Sangau Zamzam. Middle Tennessee's men will be rebuilding after the departure of a pair of All-Conference runners - Jonathan Guillou and Derek Dell. The Blue Raiders will also be looking for bodies with just four returnees to the squad in 2006 - senior Tony Carufe, junior Matt Young and sophomores Ryan Hood and Luke Pfleger. Carufe placed 40th at last year's SBC Championships and improved with each week during the spring, setting personal-bests in the 800-meters four times during the outdoor season. Young has been a solid contributor for two seasons in the Blue and White and will be counted on even more in 2006. Hood and Pfleger both suffered through ups and downs as freshmen in 2005-06, but must become more consistent for the Blue Raiders to improve on their eighth-place finish at last season's SBC meet. The squad should add a Kenyan in the next 10 days as well as one more runner for the remainder of the schedule. Friday's fifth runner will likely be senior Jermaine Barton.

Middle Tennessee State University Athletics

Related News

Next Event

Related Videos