Cross Country Set For Greater Louisville Classic

The men's 8,000-meter race will commence at 9:30 a.m. EDT and the women's race will start at 10:15 a.m.

Nicci Corbin

Sept. 27, 2012

TUCSON - University of Arizona Wildcat No. 12 women’s and men’s cross country teams will compete in the Greater Louisville Cross Country Classic on Saturday, Sept. 29. The competition will be held at Tom Sawyer State Park. The men’s race will start at 9:30 a.m. EDT while the women’s 5,000-meter race will begin at 10:15 a.m.

Along with Arizona, Arkansas (W: 10), Penn State (M: NR, W: 17), Texas (M: 6), Washington (W: 1), Wisconsin (W:29), Vanderbilt (M: NR, W: 8) and many other teams will be competing on Saturday.

“It is our first big meet, more importantly, if we do well, it will be the meet that could help us get to the NCAA Championships,” head coach James Li said. “If we don’t get first or second place at the NCAA West Regionals, and there’s a chance that we won’t, this meet can help us get to the NCAA Championships. That’s why it has become an important meet for us. Hopefully, we will go there and do well; I think we will be very competitive.”

In the USTFCCCA week three national poll, the Arizona women remained at the No. 12 spot. Arizona is joined by four other Pac-12 teams in the rankings. Washington stayed at No. 1, Oregon slid a spot to No. 3, Stanford climbed two spots to No. 6 and Colorado is No. 15 after moving up two spots.

The Wildcat men are unranked in the national poll but moved up two spots to No. 5 in the NCAA West Region poll. Five Pac-12 squads are in the national poll. Colorado is ranked seventh after falling two spots, Stanford is still ninth, Oregon moved up two spots to 23rd, Washington State dropped a spot to 29th and UCLA fell three places to 30th.

On the women’s side, senior Elizabeth Apgar, senior Jen Bergman, sophomore Stephanie Bulder, freshman Molly Callahan, sophomore Nicci Corbin, sophomore Clea Formaz, junior Elvin Kibet, senior Melanie McGrath, junior Erin Menefee and junior Amanda Russell will toe the line for Arizona.

For the men, sophomore Kenji Bierig, junior James Eichberger, freshman Nathan Kandie, sophomore Lawi Lalang, sophomore Sam Macaluso, senior Rory McLeod, freshman Michael Parkes, senior Stephen Sambu, freshman Christopher Tansey and sophomore Thomas Valente will sport the Cardinal and Navy.

“I think Lawi (Lalang) and Stephen (Sambu) running together will be awesome,” Li said. “It’s still early for those guys but they both look great in training. Lawi is training very well and is totally healthy; he’s going to do great. Stephen is clearly better than he was two years ago so I’m really excited about those two guys. I hope they don’t go too hard, hopefully they ease into it and get ready for championship season.”