Alabama Women's Cross Country Team Headed to the Mountains
10/5/2003 12:00:00 AM
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The Alabama women’s cross country team heads back out onto the road for its third meet of the 2003 season, the 5-kilometer Blue Ridge Mountain Open hosted by Appalachian State Friday (Oct. 3).
And for the first time this season, the Tide will have the services of sophomore Blair Davis. Davis, slowed by illness early in the school year, is back to full strength and will help provide some measure of leadership out on the course for a very young Alabama squad.
“It will be good to finally have the complete team running this weekend,” coach Steve Keith said. “With the addition of a now healthy Blair Davis, our top five should be very effective. One objective this weekend will be to run more as a team and narrow the time gap between our number one and number five runners.”
The Tide ran without Davis at the Belmont Opener and the Crimson Classic. At both those meets, the top-4 was made up exclusively of freshmen. Keith is hoping that the addition of Davis, plus the added experience of the Tide’s home meet two weeks ago, will help his team race more effectively.
“At the Crimson Classic we had four runners within 59 seconds of each other,” Keith said. “This week we’d like to see five runners within 40 to 45 seconds. I’m sure it will be a little cool in the mountains so the conditions should be great for distance running.”
There will be nine schools in competition at the Open, including Virginia Tech and UNC.
