Bama Competes at Great American Cross Country Festival
9/29/2004 12:00:00 AM
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The Alabama women’s cross country team returns to action Friday, Oct. 1 at 4:45 p.m. in the Great American Cross Country Festival’s Nike Race of Champions in Raleigh, NC after a four week lay off from competition.
After having their home meet, and what would have been their second meet of the season, canceled on Sept. 17 due to Hurricane Ivan, the Crimson Tide finally returns to action.
“The four solid weeks of training has been good,” coach Steve Keith said. “But the ladies are ready to race someone. There will be 22 or so schools including six or seven in the top-30 and the No. 1 (NCAA) Division II team in the nation. So this is a nice full race to jump into having not raced at this distance.”
The Tide will see seven of its eight compete in the Great American with senior Virnetta Greene sitting out this meet due to a lingering illness. Sophomore Tara Enebak has had some limitations due to a hamstring injury, but it has improved and she will compete this weekend.
“I also look for freshman Jen Gray to jump in and contribute even more than she did in the first meet,” Keith said.
The Tide gets back to a normal schedule of competition after this weekend.
“We get back on track after this,” Keith said. “The training has been good, but you don’t get the feedback you need without a race. We’ll be at a little bit of a disadvantage this weekend because we don’t have that racing experience right now. There’s just no substitute.”
