Sept. 25, 2008
ATLANTA – The Georgia Tech men’s and women’s cross country teams head to Falcon Heights, Minn., Saturday, for the 23rd annual Roy Griak Invitational. The meet is one of the largest in the nation each year and will take place at the Les Bolstad Golf Course.
“The Griak Inviational is one of the first big invitationals of the season and we’re excited about participating this year,” head coach Alan Drosky said. “It offers great competition from all regions of the country on a challenging cross country course.”
The meet, which is hosted by Minnesota, will feature six college races and four high school races with the Yellow Jackets competing in the men’s 8K run at 12:10 p.m. (CT) and the women’s 6K race at 12:55 p.m.
“We’ve had a great month of training since the start of the school year and it’s time to start rounding into racing form,” Drosky added.
The Tech women are led by freshman Mary Kate DuBard, who finished third at the season-opening Georgia Tech/Georgia Dual meet Sept. 4, with a time of 11:17 in the 3200-meter race.
Fellow newcomers Annie Martin (11:30) and Betsy Kim (11:39) will look to improve on their 6th and 8th place finishes in the Dual, as sophomore Sarah Anderson and junior Lindsey Pickens round out the top-five from the season opener.
“For the women, it will be their first six kilometer race (3.75 mi) of the season, and for over half of our young squad, it will be their first 6K ever,” Drosky said. “We’ve emphasized more strength and endurance in their training so far, which should help them navigate the longer race distance.”
The Tech men are led by junior Garad Soderman, who led the Yellow Jacket squad with a second place finish (among collegiate runners) at the Georgia Tech/Georgia Dual. Seniors E.C. Gibbs and Nazar Trilisky will look to improve on their top-ten finishes at the season opener.
“We feel like we’ve got a strong group [on the men’s side] so we’re anxious to see how we fare against the competition and on this challenging course,” Drosky added.
The Yellow Jackets last competed at the Griak during the 2001 season.
A complete recap and full results will be available on RamblinWreck.com shortly following the conclusion of the event.
