Cross Country Opens Season Friday

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - Middle Tennessee's cross country teams open the season Friday at the Belmont Opener in Nashville, Tenn., at Percy Warner Park at the Vaughn's Creek Course. The women's course will be 4K and the men will run 5K. "The first meet is to get it together to get ourselves semi-organized. It's really just a flush out. That's why we pick a meet that's close and also one that's not the full distance," head coach Dean Hayes said. The Middle Tennessee women return six letterwinners from a year ago, including senior Marjorie Gombert and sophomore Zamzam Sangau, who both finished in the Top 20 at last year's Sun Belt Championships. Juniors Tiffany Sawyer, Ashley Comstock and Ashleigh Thaler along with senior Catherine Chester provide great depth and experience for this year's squad. A pair of newcomers will make their debut for the women on Friday - freshmen Marla Bailey (Barrie, Ontario) and Jennifer Poland (Murfreesboro, Tenn.). Redshirt sophomore Kaitlyn Hammond should also return to action after running in just one race a year ago because of injuries. "Marjorie has really looked good and Zamzam, who came in last year and really blossomed toward the end of the year, winning the 1500-meters at the Sun Belt [Championships], she's looked real good this summer. Ashley Comstock really looked good in a time trial earlier in the year, so hopefully she's approaching what she did as a freshman," Hayes said. On the men's side, All-Sun Belt performer William Songock will lead a squad that returns five letterwinners and also features three highly touted newcomers. Songock finished seventh at last year's SBC Championships and was voted the Sun Belt Freshman of the Year. Unfortunately he struggled with injuries during the indoor and outdoor track seasons but has been cleared for full workouts for cross country. Seniors Matthew Young and Chris Travis along with junior Luke Pfleger and sophomore Philip Benavides provide experience for this year's club, while freshmen Festus Chemaoi (Ainabkoi, Kenya) and Adam Cunningham (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) should alslo be major factors this season. Sophomore Julius Kurui (Kapsabet, Kenya), who arrived in January 2007 and participated in the indoor and outdoor track seasons, along with freshman David Johnson (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) provide the Blue Raiders with one of the deepest distance teams in school history. "It will really be a new team on the men's side. We have Festus and Julius, who came in the spring, and then William as the top three. Adam, David Johnson and Benavides, who had a stress fracture for half of cross country and couldn't do anything, give is some depth and then hopefully we'll get a couple of more to give us our whole team," Hayes said. The women will run at 5:30 p.m. followed by the men at 6 p.m. Full results may be found at cfpitiming.com.

Middle Tennessee State University Athletics

Next Event

Related Videos