Sports

Tech cross country runs in NCAA Championships Saturday

The Golden Eagle Cross Country teams will line up to race the NCAA South Regional Championship in Tuscaloosa, Ala. on Nov. 6.

The race will be held at the University of Alabama’s Harry Pritchett Cross Country course and features 35 teams made up of 462 student runners.

The men’s teams will run a longer 10K race in place of the normal 8k while the women will run a 6K instead a 5K. This will not be the first time this season that the girls have faced the extended distance, but will be for the men. The first two races of the season, the Sewanee Invitational and the Georgia State Invitational, were both 6K runs for the girls while every men’s race so far this season has been an 8K.

“I’m looking forward to the opportunity to race with the best athletes in the South, and hope that it will be a positive experience for our team,” TTU Sophomore Meghan O’Donoghue said. “We’ve run a few 6K races already this year so Saturday will be a great chance to improve our times.”

The Golden Eagles have had success this season improving their personal best times. At the Jacksonville State Invitational, 13 Tech runners, including O’Donoghue, posted new personal best records. Since that race, O’Donoghue beat her record once again at the Evansville Invitational.

According to the NCAA Participant Manual, no awards will be given out at the regional races, but the top 14 finishers along with the top three teams from both the men’s and women’s races will be recognized immediately following the women’s race.

The men’s race is scheduled to start at 10 a.m. and the women’s at 11:15 a.m. More information and competitors lists can be found at http://www.rolltide.com/sports/c-xctrack/spec-rel/2011-regionals.html, along with results from after the race to be posted on the TTU Athletics website at http://www.ttusports.com/sports/mxc/index.