Sept. 16, 2009
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Vanderbilt cross country teams return to the course this weekend as they will host 20 teams at the Commodore Classic at Percy Warner Park Saturday. The men’s 8000-meter race will begin at 9 a.m., while the women’s 5K will start at 10 a.m.
The Commodores will host a talented field this weekend including a number of teams from within the state in Austin Peay, Bethel, Lipscomb, Memphis, Rhodes, Tennessee State, Tennessee Tech and UT-Martin.
“This will be a nice large meet, maybe twice the size of our opener so we will see a number of new teams this weekend,” Head Coach Steve Keith said.
“I have been very happy with the workouts the past two weeks. The women have continued to improve and the men are running in a much more cohesive group than before. This should be a good chance to get the men in a 5-6 person group similar to the women.”
The ‘Dores will be running longer distances this weekend at Percy Warner than they did in the season opener at the Belmont-Vanderbilt Opener. Two weeks ago, the women ran a 4K while the men ran a 5K.
“The races are a little longer (5k / 8k) but fitness has improved as well so we can try and run the same hard rhythm as we did two weeks ago,” added Keith.
The women’s team is fresh off its second consecutive team title at the Belmont-VU Opener on Sept. 5. The ‘Dores displayed a lot of depth and a stockpile of talent in the first competition of the 2009 season as three runners placed in the top eight and seven in the top-16.
Kristabel Doebel-Hickok and Allie Scalf paced the Commodores with 4K times of 14:34.20 and 14:39.82. Junior Rita Jorgensen finished two spots back of Scalf with a respectable 14:45.94 while sophomore Louise Hannallah posted a 14:48.39, good for 11th place.
“Saturday should be a great opportunity for the women to continue running as a tight group. I’d like to see six to seven women within 20-25 seconds of each other like we ran at the Opener.”
The Vanderbilt men look to improve on their top-five finish at the Belmont-VU Opener this weekend as it will put its endurance to the test Saturday with a longer race.
In the first meet of the season, the men were paced by the sophomore duo of Jenner Kizer and Kyle Rewick as they clocked times of 16:15.37 and 16:18.38 in the men’s 5K, good for 14th and 16th place. Freshman Joseph Newman kept pace with the top Commodores for most of the race before registering a 16:25.29. Vanderbilt’s top returnee, Thomas Davis finished in the top-25 individually as he notched a 16:33.08.
“It should be fun running our last home meet out at Percy Warner in front of family and friends,” Keith said.
Stay tuned to vucommodores.com for further information regarding Saturday’s Commodore Classic.
Teams Competing
Austin Peay (M/W)
Bethel (M/W)
Blue Mountain (M/W)
Brenau (W)
Eastern Kentucky (W)
Freed-Hardeman (M/W)
Georgia State (M/W)
Jacksonville State (M/W)
Lipscomb (M/W)
Memphis (M/W)
Morehead State (M/W)
Murray State (M/W)
Rhodes (M/W)
Tennessee State (M/W)
Tennessee Tech (M/W)
UT-Martin (M/W)
Union University (M/W)
Univ. of the South (M/W)
Valparaiso (M/W)
Vanderbilt (M/W)
