Spartans Prepare for this Weekend's Winthrop Invitational
9/18/2014 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
Spartanburg, S.C. – The USC Upstate cross country team returns to the course Saturday morning as it heads to Rock Hill for the 28th Annual Winthrop Invitational from the Winthrop Lake Course.
The men will get things started at 9 a.m. with the 8K followed by the women's 5K at 9:45 a.m. The Spartans are one of 14 schools competing in the event, with the races being broken into 12 teams running the men's race and 13 for the women.
The 14 participating schools are: Appalachian State (M&W), Benedict (M&W), Catawba (M&W), Claflin (M&W), Coastal Carolina (M&W), Columbia College (W), Emory & Henry (M&W), Georgia State (W), Jacksonville State (M&W), Newberry (M&W), Shawnee State (M), South Carolina State (M&W), USC Upstate (M&W), Winthrop (M&W).
"This should be a great race for us," said Upstate associate head coach Carson Blackwelder. "We had a solid couple weeks of training and I'm excited to see how we can stack up on Saturday."
The Spartans are back on the course for the first time since Sept. 5 when they hosted the Eye Opener Invitational. The Upstate men finished third in the overall team standings while the women placed fifth. Griffin Eubanks led all Spartan runners with a second-place finish in the men's race, and Jasmine Polite notched her second career top-10 finish at the Eye Opener Invitational as she crossed the finish line in sixth place.
Awards will be presented following the meet to the top team in the Garnet Division (D1 schools) and Gold Division (Non-D1 schools), and the top 10 individual finishers in each race. Admission is free and parking will be available in the Winthrop Coliseum lot.
Upstate returns to Spartanburg on Saturday, Oct. 4 as it hosts the Upstate Invitational from Milliken Research Center beginning at 9 a.m.
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