JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn.—The Carson-Newman cross country team is set to conclude the 2015 regular season by travelling to the campus of Lincoln-Memorial University to compete in the South Atlantic Conference Meet on Saturday morning.
Both men and women's teams finished ninth at the meet last season and were slated the same mark by the league office back in August for the preseason polls.
"We have been focusing on tapering, doing that the right way, while adding a couple of really good strong workouts in preparation for this meet," coach Tony Parrilla said. "We added our largest meter workout we have which is the ten-kilometer and eight-kilometer workouts. They are some of the older traditional workouts that we have brought to Carson-Newman to really sharpen the troops."
The men will be competing in the eight-kilometer run, while the women will take part on the six-kilometer course. All twelve SAC schools will be represented at the meet.
Two-time South Atlantic Conference Runner of the Week Lachlan Dickie (Knoxville, Tenn.) will pace a men's team that has two top-three finishes on the year. Priscah Jemeli (Eldorett, Kenya) will be leading a women's team that placed first in the Maryville Duel Meet back on September 19th.
Carson-Newman will look to benefit from training on long, rough courses over the course of the fall. The SAC Meet will offer a more flat and swift running course for the runners to embark upon Saturday morning. Parrilla believes his team should produce some top-tier times.
"I think they found the only flat spot in Pineville, K.Y.," Parrilla said. "It should be pretty fast. If we set out to do everything that we have set out to do over the course of the season, I think we are going to have a lot of personal-bests. There wasn't a course preview race, so this is going to be pretty much new for everybody."
A full recap of the South Atlantic Conference Meet can be found online at cneagles.com following the event.
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