BOONE, N.C. –Appalachian State University women's cross country will travel down to Earlysville, Va. to compete in the 5K at the Panorama Farms Invitational hosted by the University of Virginia on Friday, Sept. 23. The women's race starts at 10 a.m.
“We've seen some significant progress from top to bottom the last few weeks,” said head coach Michael Curcio. “This meet will be the biggest challenge so far, and it might even be the biggest challenge for the season. It's a tough course, and we return to this course for the NCAA regional championships in November. Some members of the team have not run on it, so the meet has two purposes, 1) See what it's like to race top ranked teams, and 2) Familiarize the team with the challenges of the course itself. We will be running against three nationally ranked teams and a number of higher ranked regional teams. If we want to do well regionally, we need to have a hard effort up at UVA.”
The Mountaineers will face a stacked field of competitors including student-athletes from three nationally ranked programs and eight regionally ranked squads. The schools that will be attending this much-anticipated meet are American University, Bucknell, No. 19 BYU, Charlotte, Clemson, Coastal Carolina, Hofstra, Loyola Maryland, SMU, No. 16 Syracuse, No. 14 Virginia and William and Mary (received 15 national votes).
This meet will be App State's first race competing against a Sun Belt Conference team and three nationally ranked foes.
Last Time on the Grass
Appalachian State swept all of the top spots at the Mountains to Sea Duals held in Boone on Friday, Sept. 16. Senior Tristin Van Ord grabbed first-place honors on the 5,000-meter course with a time of 17:55.78. Cruising right behind Van Ord was Torre Moser who glided across the finish line in 18:22.90. App State filled six of the top ten spots, and Megan Scannell was the top freshman finisher for the Mountaineers running a PR of 19:04.69 to place 12th.
In the dual meet competition, Appalachian scorched their opponents beating out Miami 18-45, UNCW 15-50 and Western Carolina 18-44. App State's excellent performance helped to lift Team Mountain (App State and Western Carolina) over Team Sea ( Miami and UNCW).
Up Next
Next week the Black and Gold will roll down to Spartanburg, S.C. for the USC Upstate Open on Saturday, Oct. 1. The women's 5K race begins at 9 a.m.
