Sept. 2, 2008
ATLANTA – After a short preseason, the Georgia Tech men’s and women’s cross country teams open their 2008 slate at the Georgia Tech-Georgia dual meet Thursday at the UGA intramural fields in Athens, Ga. The event starts with the women’s 4k at 6:00 p.m., followed by the men’s 4-mile race at 6:30 p.m.
“I’ve been on The Flats since 1984 and this will be the first cross country dual meet with UGA that I’ve been associated with,” head coach Alan Drosky said. “I absolutely cannot wait. It’s been a while since we’ve had any dual meets, but I love the head-to-head competition which sometimes gets lost in the big invitationals.”
The men’s team lost its top runner from the 2007 season in David Herren, but returns a veteran core of runners looking to step up and lead the squad.
“A group of veterans should lead us, headed by seniors E.C. Gibbs and Nazar Trilisky,” Drosky added. “The men have been having some very solid workouts and have been interchangeable so it’s hard to predict any kind of order though. Mark Mendrek-Laske, Billy Mateker, Matt Hickey, and Garad Soderman have consistently been at or near the front, but we’ve got a deep squad and several others will be in the mix as well.”
On the women’s side, leading the way is a very young group that lost four of its top five runners from 2007.
“This will be the first collegiate competition for a large part our team, so to open up head-to-head against UGA will certainly be baptism by fire.” assistant coach Becky Megesi said.
Thursday will mark highly touted freshmen Mary Kate DuBard and Annie Martin’s first appearance as Yellow Jackets. The top runners at the high school level from the state of South Carolina and Kansas respectively, DuBard and Martin will be joined by classmate Betsy Kim to headline the group.
Rounding out the women’s contingent Thursday will be junior Lindsey Pickens and senior Veronica Kinard, who, according to coach Megesi, should be right on the heels of the three freshmen.
In the 2007 season-opener at the UTC Invitational, the Tech women finished in first-place while the men placed fourth.
A complete recap and full results will be available on RamblinWreck.com shortly following the conclusion of the event.
-RamblinWreck.com-
