VIDEO: Luke Greer previews NCAA Southeast Regional
WINGATE, N.C. – The Carson-Newman cross country team will return to Wingate, North Carolina for the second consecutive event, this time for the NCAA Southeast Regional on Nov. 9th at 2019 at 9 a.m.
The team will only be able to take a total of seven runners as per NCAA rules. Two surefire competitors will be sophomore Rachel Strayer (Murfreesboro, TN) and Conal McCambridge (United Kingdom).
Strayer has been the top finisher on the women's side with the exception of the Wingate Invitational on Sept. 21st which she missed due to injury. She was also named first-team all South Atlantic Conference after taking home fifth place at the SAC Championships on Oct. 26th.
A similar finish at regionals would earn her spot in the NCAA National Championship.
"We want to get her to nationals," acting coach Luke Greer said. "She's a sophomore so she's still got plenty of time but it'd be great to get her that experience so young."
McCambridge has been the fastest men's finisher at every event this year.
"He's got a chance to make it to nationals too if he puts himself in the right position," Greer said. "If he races hard, you know, anything can happen and I'm excited to see what he can do and it could potentially be his last ever cross country race so he's just got to put his all in and see where he ends up."
The Eagles feature nine freshmen, the most prolific of whom so far have been Jasper Wilson (Chickamauga, GA) for the men and Klara Naude (South Africa) on the women's side who have often found themselves in second place amongst their Eagle teammates.
It will likely be the last race of the season for all of the freshmen.
"It'll be a great experience for them to see what the other conferences can do, what the other conferences can bring," Greer said. "I just want them to go out there, experience it, do their best, enjoy it most of all because this will be probably the last race of their freshmen year so hopefully they can cap it off well."
The team is awfully familiar with the course at Wingate as this will be the third time the Eagles have run the course after the previously mentioned Wingate Invitational on Sept. 21st and the SAC Conference Championships were both run on the same terrain.
The men will be running a 10k as opposed to the typical 8k while the women will be trekking along a 6k race as they did at the conference championships.
"We've been working on our strength for the 10k so I'm hoping they can put that into practice and just go out there and do their best and really put out there on the course and see how well they can do."
Be sure to keep up with the C-N cross country team across Carson-Newman's social media platforms and on cneagles.com.