JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – After a rainy week in Jefferson City, the Eagles cross-country teams prepare to hit the road to compete at the Queens City Invitational Friday.
Despite the Eagles' home event being canceled, the Carson-Newman cross-country teams are excited and ready for their second race of the season at the Queens City Invitational Friday. After the Battle at Mossy Creek being removed from the schedule the coaches decided to add a second trip to Queens to their schedule joining a race with over 30 schools participating.
"Even without that home event, which we'll have back next year no problem," assistant cross-country coach Eric Phillips said, "we're still excited and rocking and rolling."
From the mens team, Luke Greer (Northampton, United Kingdom), came back from the summer ready to go despite battling an injury that cost him weeks of training time. Placing first in the Lenoir-Rhyne Invitational on September 14th, Greer looks to have another successful race at Queens.
On the women's side, the freshman Rachel Strayer had a strong debut for her first collegiate race coming in 13thplace.
"We've been playing it safe, but he (Greer) is a rockstar." Phillips said. "On the women's side, Rachel Strayer has been a rock. Straight out of the gate she's strong and confident and we're going to keep building on that."
The rest of the women are looking to make an impact after coming in 3rdoverall at the LR Invite. With different years of experience Phillips believes that they will develop into an even stronger unit going forward.
"We've got a very strong pack of young ladies not too far behind her (Strayer) that we're working on developing." Phillips said. "If we race even halfway to the degree that we've been working out recently, we're going to have a really good day."
The participants at the invitational will consist of more South Atlantic Conference and South East Region schools than the LR Invite. Coach Phillips believes that it is a good chance to truly see where the Eagles stand.
"It's a big reason why we chose to go to this meet," Phillips said. "Being able to go up there and mix it up and kind of see where the cards fall, see how we line up will give us a good barometer of where we're at this season and the hard work we've been putting in."
The women will race at 4pm and the men will take off at 5pm. For additional information and a recap of the event check back on cneagles.com.
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