Middle Tennesee State University Athletics
Middle Tennessee
Greater Louisville Classic
Cross Country to Race in Competitive Louisville Classic
9/29/2017 11:00:00 AM | Track & Field/Cross Country
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – The Middle Tennessee cross country teams compete this Saturday, Sept 30 in what will be their most competitive meet of the season thus far. The Blue Raiders will travel to Louisville, Ky. to run in the Greater Louisville Classic.
The meet is set to be held on the same course that the NCAA Championships will be at in late November. This is drawing some of the top teams in the nation to the meet and that will test the Raider runners.
The men's side comes into the meet ranked No. 20 in the country. They will go head to head with several over nationally ranked programs including No. 1 Northern Arizona, No. 7 Wisconsin, No. 12 Furman, No. 19 Illinois, No. 24 Virginia Tech, No. 26 Boise State and RV Eastern Kentucky.
At last year's Greater Louisville Classic, the men's team finished just three points out of first. Virginia Tech won the meet with Jacob Choge finishing second overall and Kigen Chemadi and Sampson Laari finishing in the top 12. Choge's time on the course last season was his fastest 8k to date, 23:37.23.
The Raider men are coming off a week of rest but prior to that picked up a win at the Vanderbilt Invitational. Choge and Chemadi finished second and third at the meet.
The women's team will also face some of the top competition in the nation this Saturday. Seven nationally ranked teams will run at the meet including No. 13 Boise State, No. 18 Wisconsin, No. 20 Minnesota, No. 25 Vanderbilt, No. 29 Furman, RV West Virginia and RV Louisville.
At least season's Greater Louisville Classic, the Blue Raider women were 13th. Agnes Abu is the top returning Raider finisher from last year. She was 67th in the competitive field in 18:03.5, her fastest 5k time at Middle. Abu nearly clipped that mark in the Raiders' last outing, finishing the Commodore Classic in 18:04.1 for 21st place.
The men are set to begin at 9:30 a.m. with the women to follow at 10:15 a.m. at E.P. "Tom" Sawyer State Park.
Players Mentioned
