VIDEO: Carson-Newman acting coach Luke Greer previews Louisville Classic
LOUISVILLE, KY – The Carson-Newman cross country team will hit the halfway point of their season when they travel to Louisville, Kentucky for the Louisville Classic on Saturday, October 5th, 2019 at 9 a.m.
Graduate transfer Conal McCambridge (United Kingdom) is seeking a third consecutive top-ten finish in just as many races as an Eagle.
McCambridge has established himself as the leader of the team on the men's side after finishing third at the Lenoir-Rhyne Invitational and then placing 10th overall at the Wingate Invitational.
He has set a benchmark for the team that the rest of his teammates are striving to surpass.
"It's great to have a kid like Conal on the team," Carson-Newman acting coach Luke Greer said. "…he doesn't want to get caught by them but they want to catch him so it's great to have him as a leader and them just chasing him as a pack."
Aubree Cole (Cartersville, GA) represented the women's side well at the Wingate Invitational, crossing the finish line at number 56 overall.
"Aubree's our lone senior so I mean she's the one the younger girls look to and she's a great leader for us anyway," Greer said. "She comes in, she works hard, she does her best and she just wants to keep improving and that's what we want her to do, keep improving and keep moving forward."
Cole also finished ninth at the Lenoir-Rhyne Invitational.
"Hopefully she can lead the younger girls and show them what they need to do as they grow older and go through the years," Greer said.
One of the squad's nine freshmen that has seen early success is Jasper Wilson (Chickamauga, GA) who placed tenth at Lenoir-Rhyne and 46th at Wingate. Both finishes were the second-best among Eagle men outside of McCambridge.
For the women, freshmen Klara Naude (South Africa) and Angela Dela Cruz (Morristown, TN) have finished within earshot of one another in both events so far this season, placing 13th and 14th at Lenoir-Rhyne and 65th and 76th at Wingate, respectively.
The Louisville Classic represents the third out of four regular season events for the team. These meets are then followed up by the South Atlantic Conference Championships on October 26th, the NCAA Southeast Regional on November 9th and finally the NCAA DII National Championships on November 23rd.
"This is a big meet and there's going to be a lot of really, really great schools there so it's going to be a tough race," Greer said. "It's gonna be a really great experience for all the people in it. Even Conal, he's never run there before. Aubree's never run here before. It's gonna be a really, really great race for them.
SAC rivals Mars Hill and Tusculum will be in attendance as well. In addition, multiple Division I programs such as Tennessee and Kennesaw State will participate.
Be sure to keep up with the Carson-Newman cross country team across C-N's social media platforms and on cneagles.com.
