TEMPE, Ariz. -- After opening up the season a week ago in Flagstaff, the Sun Devil cross country team makes the in-state trip to the south for the Dave Murray Invitational in Tucson on Friday, Sept. 16.
While the George Kyte Invite was a "soft opening" as head coach Louie Quintana called it, this week's meet provides a sneak peek of the Pac-12 Championship course the team will run on in just six weeks.
"It definitely takes on a differnet importance this year because we're running on the Pac-12 Championship course," said Quintana. "The 2,000-meter looped course is something we haven't run or competed at before, so going into it, we want to have some familiarity with it. That's going to be the takeaway from this weekend along with competing well. With the conference meet in six weeks, we want to get a rhythm of the course, the turns and all of the factors that go into it."
Also unlike two weeks ago, the Devils will be running a majority of their athletes, including the first collegiate meet for freshman Michael Coccia, redshirt freshman Simon Paige and freshman Alexis Nichols.
"We'll be running quite a few people. We're still holding out a couple, but we're running at or near full capacity," said Quintana. "That first meet was a soft opening, but this week we'll be unvailing some true freshmen."
The meet includes two laps for a 4K event on the women's side, while the men will endure an extra lap for the 6K -- both of which are a lap shorter than what the Pac-12 meet holds in store come October. With arguably the deepest and toughest conference and region in the NCAA, the Sun Devils plan to use this competitive advantage as much as possible with no other Pac-12 teams competing in Tucson other than Arizona.
"We're emerging with both our men's and women's group if things continue to move forward the way we hope they can," Quintana said. "The region could be historically deep this year, meaning anywhere between seven and 10 teams could advance to NCAA's if things go well. We just need to be ready. It's going to be important to take any advantage that we possibly can. I advocated for us to run this (Pac-12) course versus running the old Dave Murray course for that specific reason."
The women's event begins at 4:45 p.m. on Friday, with the women following at 5:30 p.m.
Men's Competitors:
-CJ Albertson
-Cody Brazeal
-Brandon Boys
-Michael Coccia
-Nick Dale
-John Reniewicki
-Simon Paige
-Kyle Shinn
Women's Competitors:
-Chelsey Albertson
-Carissa Diaz
-Courtney Lewis
-Anna Pruter
-Kelly Schock
-Megan Reniewicki
-Alexis Nichols
-Kaitlin Kaluzny
-Lauren Gavulic
While the George Kyte Invite was a "soft opening" as head coach Louie Quintana called it, this week's meet provides a sneak peek of the Pac-12 Championship course the team will run on in just six weeks.
"It definitely takes on a differnet importance this year because we're running on the Pac-12 Championship course," said Quintana. "The 2,000-meter looped course is something we haven't run or competed at before, so going into it, we want to have some familiarity with it. That's going to be the takeaway from this weekend along with competing well. With the conference meet in six weeks, we want to get a rhythm of the course, the turns and all of the factors that go into it."
Also unlike two weeks ago, the Devils will be running a majority of their athletes, including the first collegiate meet for freshman Michael Coccia, redshirt freshman Simon Paige and freshman Alexis Nichols.
"We'll be running quite a few people. We're still holding out a couple, but we're running at or near full capacity," said Quintana. "That first meet was a soft opening, but this week we'll be unvailing some true freshmen."
The meet includes two laps for a 4K event on the women's side, while the men will endure an extra lap for the 6K -- both of which are a lap shorter than what the Pac-12 meet holds in store come October. With arguably the deepest and toughest conference and region in the NCAA, the Sun Devils plan to use this competitive advantage as much as possible with no other Pac-12 teams competing in Tucson other than Arizona.
"We're emerging with both our men's and women's group if things continue to move forward the way we hope they can," Quintana said. "The region could be historically deep this year, meaning anywhere between seven and 10 teams could advance to NCAA's if things go well. We just need to be ready. It's going to be important to take any advantage that we possibly can. I advocated for us to run this (Pac-12) course versus running the old Dave Murray course for that specific reason."
The women's event begins at 4:45 p.m. on Friday, with the women following at 5:30 p.m.
Men's Competitors:
-CJ Albertson
-Cody Brazeal
-Brandon Boys
-Michael Coccia
-Nick Dale
-John Reniewicki
-Simon Paige
-Kyle Shinn
Women's Competitors:
-Chelsey Albertson
-Carissa Diaz
-Courtney Lewis
-Anna Pruter
-Kelly Schock
-Megan Reniewicki
-Alexis Nichols
-Kaitlin Kaluzny
-Lauren Gavulic