Alabama Women's Cross Country has Successful Training Camp
8/28/2005 12:00:00 AM
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The Alabama women's cross country team took to the hills for their preseason training camp.
Head coach Steve Keith took his team of 13 up to the Desoto State Park where they camped out in cabins in the Little River Canyon National Preserve. The trip to the allowed the Tide to train in the relative cool of the Ft. Payne area as well as providing time for the squad, which includes six freshmen, to bond.
"Basically it was eat, sleep, run and get to know each other," Keith said. "We got in some good training, some where in the neighborhood of 25 miles, but most importantly we all got the chance to get to know each other, which with a squad this size, is important."
Alabama comes into the season with the most depth it's had in several years, which gives Keith more choices during the season and will give the Tide more fire power come the championship season.
"We're allowed to run 10 athletes at the SEC Championships," Keith said. "And I can tell you that this season, we'll run 10 and all of them will be competitive. I'd like to get to the point where we have 15 to 16 on the team, but we are world's better than we have been."
The core of this year's squad comes from the junior class where Megan Carnes, Julia Hicks and Elizabeth Wancowicz all enjoyed breakthroughs during the track and field season last year.
"One of the things that I wanted to be sure they noticed is where the girls they were beating last year during the track season finished in cross country," Keith said. "We took some steps forward last year and they are ready to keep that going."
Of course, the coach himself might be hampered a little bit to start the season. Keith took a tumble during a training run during the camp and came up with a sprained ankle.
"Yeah, I was 15 seconds or so ahead of the pack, and came down wrong," Keith said. "Luckily I was able to pop back up before they caught up with me, so I just pointed them in the right direction before limping back to the cabins."
And while the coach is a little lame at the moment, the runners that count for the Tide are in very good shape going into the season, which gets underway with the Belmont Opener September 2 in Nashville, Tenn.
