Cross Country Prepared to Host Auto-Owners Spartan Invitational
9/15/2016 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
EAST LANSING, Mich. -- After a week and a half hiatus the Michigan State men's and women's cross country teams are set to host the Auto-Owners Spartan Invitational on Friday, Sept. 16 at the Forest Akers East Golf Course.
The men's 8,000 meter run is set to take off at 11:50 a.m., and the women's 6,000 meter race will follow directly after at 12:30 p.m.
"I think it's always good to run at home, we do it so rarely," said director of cross country Walt Drenth. "For the upperclassmen, and the seniors especially they get to put the uniform on at home for a final time and that is always a nice thing for them. Also, running on your home course with a lot of people around is always really fun for everyone."
Friday's meet will mark the second outing of the 2016 campaign for the Michigan State cross country teams. The last time the teams competed was at the Jeff Drenth Memorial Invite at Central Michigan University on Sept. 2.
The men recorded three top finishes in the 5,000 meter race. Nathan Burnand led the pack for a second-place finish with a time of 15:21.96. Andrew Middelton and Matthew Thomas rounded out the top five with third and fourth place finishes. Middleton ran a 15:23.12, while Thomas followed close behind crossing the finish line at 15:23.56.
For the women, the team finished with six runners in the top 10. Allison Luna led the pack for the Spartans garnering a second place finish with a time of 17:51.38. Nicole Kowalchick was closely behind in her third-place finish, crossing the finish line at the 17:53.51 mark. Lauren Jenkins, Jessica Goethais, Jenny Rogers and Nichole Clement were the other women's top 10 finishers for the Spartans.
"It is absolutely an opportunity for everyone," said Drenth. "The young runners will get to see college distances, and they will get to see a full size collegiate meet. Up at Central Michigan last week it was just a little smaller feel, the dynamics are really different in a meet of this magnitude. There will be a lot of opportunity for growth here."
The women's program has also moved up one spot from No. 10 to No. 9 in the most recent U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association poll. The men's team has dropped from No. 29 to No. 30 in this week's poll.
The Spartans plan to race their veteran runners to get them prepared for the start of the season as well as their younger athletes to prepare them for the collegiate style of racing.
"Our expectations are to run everyone who is healthy," said Drenth. "We will have a lot better idea of who we are as a group and how we fit in and how people fit in. It will help us moving forward, just in terms of who will travel and how we proceed."
After the conclusion of the collegiate races on Friday, more than 170 high school programs will compete across four different divisions. The event is expected to see more than 8,000 runners take off from the start line on Friday.
"The meet has really become a community event, when you have that many people come through town, with thousands of entries and then with every kid comes a parent or two or a grandparent or two it makes a great event which in turn makes it the community event that it is," said Drenth. "Overall it will be remarkable if the weather is nice; we will have a great group of people here."
Results of the collegiate meet can be found at msuspartans.com or tfrrs.org, while the high school and middle school results will be located at playmakers.com.
Players Mentioned
