VIDEO: Mike Spooner Interview
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. - Carson-Newman's cross country teams will kick off the year by traveling 172 miles to compete in the Fleet Feet invitational hosted by Catawba College, Saturday morning in Salisbury, N.C.
The men will run an 8K at 8:30 a.m., followed by the women's 5K at 9:20. Live updates will be available on Carson-Newman's Twitter account @cn_eagles.
"With our team being so young it's always good to get a competition under our belt," Cafson-Newman head coach Mike Spooner said, "for many of them it's going to be a huge learning curve with half our roster being new incomers. Being a young squad, you can go to meets and just take away some positive experiences even if the results are not positive you can always gain something out of it."
Spooner's squad will feature ten newcomers on this new-look Eagles team headlined by freshman Gace Lathrop.
"I think Grace is going to do very well," said Spooner. "I think her expectations for herself are high. I think she is one who is going to be able to mix it up really well."
The men's team will run with seven returning racers from last year. Among those is the Netherlands native Raymond Brugmans. Brugmans started the season strong last year finishing second in the Tusculum open 5K with a time of 16:09.0. His best 8K time was at the Queen City Invite where he finished with a time of 25:54.0.
On the women's side, Madison Dockery will look to build off her impressive campaign last year as she set a personal best 5K with a time of 19:11.1 at the Royals Challenge and finished the season strong with a 23:29.9 at the NCAA Southeast regional 6K
The Carson-Newman women's cross country squad was projected to finish sixth in the 2022 SAC cross country poll while the men were ranked seventh to start the season. The women have been predicted to finish in the top-ten every year since 2010.
The Eagles will look to carry the momentum from this meet with them to Cookeville when they travel to compete in the Golden Eagle Cross Country Invitational on Sept. 16th.
