Spartans Head to A-Sun Championships this Weekend
10/31/2013 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
Spartanburg, S.C. – The USC Upstate cross country teams are set to compete this weekend in the 2013 Atlantic Sun Conference Championships at Percy Warner Park in Nashville, Tenn.
The competition is set to begin at 9 a.m. Saturday morning with the men's race followed by the women at 10 a.m. Lipscomb is the host school for this year's championship.
"The team is in great shape right now," said associate head coach Carson Blackwelder. "I believe our fitness and overall strength is where it needs to be and they are ready to compete."
The Upstate men have captured the last two conference championships. The Spartans won the program's first league title in 2011 at Warner Park, and then defended their crown the following year at Buckingham Cross Country Course in Fort Myers, Fla.
Senior Ross Oden was a 2012 All-Atlantic Sun Second Team selection after finishing the meet in 12th place. Junior Mark Rennix earned a 34th place finish and senior Andrew Kipchumba followed in 39th place.
This season, Oden won the individual title at the Eye Opener Invitational as the Spartans finished first in the overall team standings.
Upstate has had four runners, along with Oden, place inside the top 15 this season. Freshman Theodore Kountourogiannis had a sixth place finish at the Eye Opener Invitational, while freshman Alex Love and junior Riley Doherty had 12th and 13th place finishes at the meet, respectively.
The women's team finished ninth at last season's A-Sun Championships. A total of seven runners posted personal-best times in last year's meet led by junior Jasmine Polite in 24th place. Sophomore Anastasia Kolesnitchenko recorded a 35th place finish to rank second among Spartan finishers. Senior Hannah Chaney, junior Erin Gethin, and sophomores Nia Payne and Ashleigh Torres also had personal-best times at the meet.
This season, Polite and Kolesnitchenko have the squad's two top 10 finishes. Polite finished in fifth place and Kolesnitchenko sixth at the Eye Opener Invitational in Spartanburg. The women had a team-best finish of third place at the Eye Opener meet.
"We ran this course (Warner Park) two years ago and had a lot of success on it," added Blackwelder. "So hopefully we will be able to continue that trend with some PR's and All-A-Sun performances."
Official results for the 2013 Atlantic Sun Cross Country Championships will be available at upstatespartans.com and atlanticsun.org following the conclusion of both the women's 5K and men's 8K races.
The Spartans will travel to Charlottesville, Va. on Friday, Nov. 13 for the NCAA Southeast Regionals.
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