Weekly Notes - Alabama v. Samford Dual
8/27/2014 12:00:00 AM | Track & Field, Cross Country
THIS WEEK - ALABAMA V. SAMFORD DUAL (HOOVER, ALA.)
The University of Alabama men's and women's cross country teams travel to Hoover, Alabama, this Friday, August 29, to take on Samford University in a dual meet at Veterans Park on Valleydale, on a two-mile course. The women's 2-mile race is slated to begin at 6 p.m. Central Time (CT), while the men will race in a 5-kilometer race starting at 6:30 p.m. CT.
IN THE RANKINGS
The Alabama women's team is ranked third in the first USTFCCCA South Regional preseason rankings, released August 25. The Crimson Tide men begin the 2014 season ranked eighth in the South Region.
WOMEN ENTER 2014 AFTER HIGHEST REGIONAL FINISH SINCE 1987
Last year, the Crimson Tide women finished third among a field of 27 teams while the men's team was 13th in a field of 26 teams at the NCAA South Region Championships. The two top teams from each race advanced to the NCAA Championships. Individually, the top four finishers not on a qualifying team (automatic or at-large) earned invitations to the NCAA meet. Alabama was third in the women's standings with 143 points. In the men's standings, Alabama had 341 points for a 13th-place finish. Alabama's women's finish was highlighted by a 13th place showing by then-sophomore Katelyn Greenleaf. Running in a field of 194 runners, Greenleaf covered the six-kilometer course in 20 minutes, 38 seconds.
AIROLA & DEUEL LEAD DEVELOPING MEN'S TEAM
Senior Matt Airola and junior Parker Deuel led Alabama's young and improving men's team in 2013 and figure to do so again this year. Airola was the Tide's top finisher in three of Alabama's six races last year, led by a sixth-place finish at the Iowa Black & Gold Invitational. He also led the team at the Crimson Classic (19th) and the SEC Championships (34th). Deuel was the Tide's top finisher in two races in 2013, the Paul Short Invitational (82nd in a huge field of hundreds of runners) and the NCAA South Regional (39th).with a time of 31:03.76.
Tide Women Won 3 Team Titles Last Year
The Alabama women's cross country team won the team title at three meets in the fall of 2013 - the Samford Dual (August 31), the Iowa Black and Gold Invitational (September 13) and the Crimson Classic (Oct. 18), in addition to posting Alabama's highest women's team finish at an NCAA South Region Championships since 1987, the Tide's third-place showing on November 15 in Tuscaloosa. The Tide women posted a sixth-place showing at the 2013 SEC Championships in Gainesville, Fla.
GREENLEAF & PANAGIOTOU EARN ALL-REGION HONORS
Sophomores Katelyn Greenleaf and Meropi Panagiotou earned All-South Region honors for their performances in the 2013 NCAA South Region Championships in Tuscaloosa. All-Region honors recognize the 450 male and female athletes from across the nation each season who place in the top 25 at the nine different regional championships. Greenleaf earned the honor by virtue of a team-best 13th-place finish at the South Region championships on November 15 as she traversed the 6-kilometer version of the Harry Pritchett Running Course in a personal-best time of 20 minutes, 38.44 seconds.
THE ROSTER
Alabama continues to develop depth and talent on its men's and women's rosters in head coach Dan Waters' fourth season at the helm of the program. This season Alabama will field a men's roster that include six runners of the 14 men on the list making their competitive debuts for the Tide. On the women's side, nine athletes of the 15 ladies on the list are competing in cross country for the first time for Alabama.
A MOMENT WITH HEAD COACH DAN WATERS
What are you expecting from the upcoming first meet of the season?
"The primary thing Coach (Adam) Tribble (UA assistant coach) and I look for is a competitive mindset from both of our teams. We felt like last year one of our teams lacked that against Samford, and it cost us dearly. This team needs to realize that we are good enough now to compete with anyone, as long as we have the right mentality and take that mentality into the race. Our men's team is still building into a competitive unit, but we expect them to come out anticipating a win on Friday. Our women's team has the talent to make an impact on the regional scene this year, as well as make a good finish on the conference level. How we perform this Friday should be a tone setter for our season, so we definitely expect our teams to come out ready to give a top effort."
What are your goals and expectations for this season?
"I don't think it's unrealistic for us to set a goal of making the NCAA meet on the women's side, competing for a top-5 finish in the SEC, and looking at a top-3 regional finish. For the men's team, we're hoping to move up the ladder to a top-8 finish at SECs and a top 5 or 6 finish at regionals. But all of that may be getting ahead of the primary goal and expectation - showing up every meet ready to compete and excel while achieving a consistency of performance and effort. If we can do that, those goals will be met."
UP NEXT
The Crimson Tide will take two weeks off from competition before returning to completion on Saturday, Sept. 20, at the Asheville Cross Country Carnival in Asheville, North Carolina.
FOLLOWING THE TIDE
Get all the latest information on the team by following @AlabamaTrack on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. General athletic news can also be found at UA_Athletics on Twitter and Instagram and AlabamaAthletics on Facebook.
