NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Vanderbilt cross country kicks off its season Friday close to home at the Belmont Opener, held at Percy Warner Park. This season will be director of cross country and track and field Althea Thomas’ third at the helm.
This is the third consecutive year that the Dores have opened their season at this event. In 2023, the women earned a runner-up finish with rising graduate student Ella Lambert as the first Commodore to cross the finish line. The men, led by rising sophomore Brady Bliven, placed third as a team.
This season, Vanderbilt cross country has several new faces on its roster, including assistant coaches Chad Balyo and Lisa Morgan.
Balyo, most recently the head cross country coach at Samford, has coached 17 All-Americans and two NCAA silver medalists in his more than 10 years in the profession. Prior to his stint in Homewood, he served as an assistant coach at Furman where his efforts helped the Paladins achieve 10 Southern Conference cross country team titles and a top 10 placement at nationals from the women in 2017.
Morgan joins the Dores after a brief stop at the New Jersey Institute of Technology where she was an assistant coach. In more than 20 years of coaching, she has tutored one Olympian, nine individual NCAA champions and 45 individual Big East champions. On six occasions, she has been named a Team USA track and field coach.
Student-athletes joining the Commodores in 2024 include Casey Bohrer, Mitchel Drees, Lily Kriegel, Claire Petersen, Michael Skora and Ellie Wolski. Drees and Skora started classes at Vandy in January, but the 2024 cross country season will be their first with the black and gold.
Both the Commodore men and women see four of five scorers from the 2023 NCAA South Region Championships return for competition in 2024. Senior Zach Hodges, the men’s most-seasoned veteran and a three-year scorer at SECs and regionals, looks towards his fourth season with Vandy. Returning scorers from SECs and regionals for the men also include sophomores Bliven, Jack DesRoches and Jackson Scruggs. On the women’s team, regional scorers back this season are sophomores Colette Kinsella and Catherine Sommerfeld and seniors Emma Curry and Julia Rosenberg. Rosenberg was the top Vanderbilt finisher at both postseason meets. Senior Cameron Fawcett was the Dores’ second finisher at SECs.
The Belmont Opener begins at 8:40 a.m. Friday with the women’s 5k. The men’s 5k race starts at 9:10 a.m. The course map and live results are available online. Parking is free at the course, and directions can be found on Belmont’s website.
Fans can follow Vanderbilt men’s and women’s cross country on Instagram, X/Twitter and Facebook at @VandyXCTrack for updates.
