Men's Cross Country Heads to NCAA Regional Championships
11/14/2003 12:00:00 AM
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The University of Alabama men's cross country team heads across the state to Auburn this Saturday to participate in the 2003 NCAA South Regional Championships.
Tide coach Joe Walker is looking for his team to rebound after a fourth place finish at the 2003 SEC Championships two weeks ago.
"I feel that the SEC meet just motivated our guys for a better showing at regionals," said Walker. "We go into the regional meet picked fourth and odds are, only two teams will advance to the NCAA championships, plus five individuals. We are really excited about finally putting a complete race together, because we've had meets this season where two or three guys will run great and then we'll have average days from our next two. If we can find a way to have four or five guys all run together for the majority of the race then we'll have the ability to make something happen and qualify as a team for Nationals."
Alabama has had success over the recent years at the NCAA Regional meet and Walker expects his team to continue that trend.
"We've been to the NCAA Championships five of the last six years now as a team and we're the only team in the South with the expectation of qualifying for nationals year in and year out," said Walker. "It is time for these guys to show that we are still a team to be reckoned with. I truly expect this group to show up and find a way to make a run at qualifying."
Sophomore Josphat Waweru will be leading the charge for Alabama on Saturday. Waweru was the only Tide member to garner All-SEC honors at the conference championship two weeks ago.
The meet will start at 9 a.m. with the men's 10,000-meter race, while the women's 6,000-meter race gets underway at 10 a.m. A brief awards ceremony will occur approximately 35-40 minutes after the women's race.
Information and results from the competition will be available at www.ncaasports.com, www.auburntigers.com and www.cfpitiming.com at the conclusion of the women's race.
