Troy University Athletics
Troy University
Troy University
Looking To Run Their Way Into Contention This Weekend
10/27/2010 3:14:40 PM | Cross Country
The Trojans are looking to build off a successful cross country regular season this weekend at WKU
Championship Central
TROY, Ala. - The Troy University cross country teams head into the Sun Belt Conference Championships this weekend in Bowling Green, with high expectations after a successful regular season.
The Trojans have done well throughout the season with top ten finishes by the men and standout performances from the women.
Enock Kirui has been a leader on the men's team with two first-place finishes and a top-five finish at the FSU Invitational.
Meanwhile, Sylvia Chirchir has stepped up and finished the season out with a win at the Coach O Invitational.
“Individually I believe that Sylvia and Enock are poised for top ten finishes, if not better this weekend,” coach Stephane Hetherington said. “They have both come around beautifully in the past few weeks.”
The freshmen have made an impact and helped both teams in each race this season on both the men's and women's side. Cory Jones, David Hudman and Haley Davies have done well throughout the season with consistent finishes and times.
The Sun Belt Conference Championship will be employing new technologies this year to keep track of the runners throughout the race and real time results. The technology has been used at the NCAA Championships and the Nike Championships, and the Sun Belt Conference is the only conference utilizing the program.
Live scoring will not only take place at the finish line, but also at each split on the course along with cumulative split times for each runner at that split. With all of this information available on the scoreboards, spectators can virtually watch the race from the finish line.
The program will allow scorekeepers to instantly print splits once the race has been judged. This information is usually not available for 30 minutes to an hour at most meets, or not until the splits are manually analyzed with another program and then put on the web.
The new tracking program has created great interest among the runners and coaches heading into this week's race.
“I cannot wait to be a part of this year's Sun Belt Conference Championships,” Hetherington said. “The conference has a lot planned that I believe will benefit our student-athletes and the community together.”
Coming off two weeks of rest the team is ready for the challenge of the conference championships.
“The team's hard work is showing,” Troy Director of Track and Field/Cross Country, Jill Lancaster said. “The staff and the athletes are confident we can make a move in the conference championship.”
The championships begin at 10 am with the women's 5K, followed at 11 am by the men's 8K. Results will be posted once they become available.
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