Cross Country 10/27/2017 12:30:00 PM

BIG SOUTH CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS ARRIVE IN LYNCHBURG

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RACE INFORMATION

Date: Saturday, October 28^th
Start times: Men's 8K at 10:30 am and Women's 5K at 11:30 am
Location: Lynchburg, Va. | Liberty Cross Country Course
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COMPETING TEAMS
Campbell
Charleston Southern
Gardner-Webb
High Point
Liberty
Longwood
Presbyterian
Radford
UNC Asheville
Winthrop

SETTING THE STAGE
We're here. We've arrived at the biggest race of the season – the 2017 Big South Cross Country Championships. With stiff competition every single year, the Highlanders will set their sights solely on being the best version of themselves that they can be.

"We want to dial in individually and have our best performance of the year," said Head Coach Eric Thatcher. "Our goal is to beat the expectations for our team based on what we've done all season long."

Last fall, the men did just that and placed third behind a stellar showing from Frisco Poole. The Marshville, N.C. native earned All-Big South honors with a 10^th-place finish. As a team, the men scored less than 120 points for a second consecutive year after only doing it one other time since 2000. The women took sixth overall with then-senior Courtney Rice placing 26^th.

One advantage the Highlanders hold this year is not only familiarity with their opposition, but with the course itself following the Big South Preview back in September.

"We've seen our conference opponents and we've seen our conference course so if you put those two things together I think it really lets us know, on an average day, where we belong," Thatcher continued. "Our task is to be above average when it matters most and use our knowledge and experience to take ourselves to that level."

The Highlanders have had four races in 2017 to see what they're made of, but it's almost an entirely different group than last year. On the men's side, seniors Frisco Poole and Haben Zemichael alongside redshirt sophomore Ashenafi Kidanu will lead the charge and behind them are several new faces. Freshmen Juan Cisneros and Carson Fernandez will make a big impact while their fellow newcomer Pete Decker will unfortunately be sidelined with an injury.

"We're a little banged up on the men's side; we didn't necessarily get to late October the way we would have hoped, but I know this is a group of mentally tough guys have overachieved and beat expectations before so I know they want to do the same thing this Saturday," noted Thatcher.

For the women, it's senior Carrie Keevey who will be relied upon to pace the Highlanders. Despite it being her first year in the program, she has a real shot at earning all-conference merits. If she does, she will be only the seventh Radford woman to be named All-Big South in the last 20 years.

Behind her will be junior Percie Lyons who place 29^th overall and 2^nd amongst Highlanders at the Championships last year and freshman Annsley Eckert who has turned in an excellent freshman campaign.

"Our women have done a tremendous job staying healthy and getting better all year long," Thatcher said. "The consistently of their effort has put them in a good position to see their best performances come this weekend."

It's never easy to predict how an athlete will perform on any given day, but the Highlanders have put in the work and done what it takes to be successful come Saturday.

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