Oct. 17, 2010

PRINCETON, N.J. – The South Carolina cross country team traveled to Princeton, NJ for the team’s first race over the SEC and NCAA championship distance of 6,000 meters with Princeton’s course actually running 6,100 meters.

It was a sunny morning as the racers sprinted at the start. The Gamecocks were racing without junior Beatrice Biwott as Coach Stan Rosenthal was holding her out with a slight groin muscle strain. Freshman Scola Jepngetich, senior Ashley Evens, junior Nicole Rheinlander and freshman Liz Locke all got out with the front pack. At two miles the Carolina pack was grouped between 15 and 20th place. Junior Erin Fedewa and freshman Sierra Henderson were 40 seconds back at the midpoint.

The next mile saw very little movement in places for the Gamecocks. However, during the last 1000 meters into a strong head wind, Evens and Jepngetich moved up. Rheinlander and Locke dropped back and Henderson used a strong last 600 to move forward. With three runners in the top 25, the team was on pace for a top three finish, however it was not to be this time as Locke ended up 41st and Henderson placed 51st. The team score of 140 left them in sixth place, five points out of 5th place, but most of the team did record PR’s for 6K.

As the team prepares for the SEC Championship in two weeks, Rosenthal said about the performance that, “I was very pleased with how our top four raced today. With Beatrice in our pack we are much stronger as a team. Our strength this year is our depth, so we need Sierra to race like she did at Disney last week. Her workouts indicate our pack can be six deep.”

“I am very optimistic of our teams finish at SEC’s. It will be difficult and every SEC team is at least regionally ranked and several are nationally ranked.”