TEMPE, Ariz. – The Arizona State cross-country team makes the trek south for their first official collegiate competition of the season at the Dave Murray Invitational hosted by the University of Arizona.
Cross-country and distance coach Louie Quintana – now entering his 15th season –has a majority of his athletes entered with some of them running unattached.
“This will be the first time that we put our entire varsity team together at the same time,“ Quintana said. “So, what I’m looking for this weekend – obviously we’re racing in the late afternoon so it’s going to be about 92 degrees – so that’s a challenge in and of itself.”
The weather will be a complete turnaround from the Sun Devils’ previous meet on Sept. 5 in Flagstaff, where the temperature was a refreshing 68 degrees. This meet in Tucson will likely be the warmest the team will compete in all fall.
The No. 23 men’s team will be represented by redshirt juniors CJ Albertson, Riley Wattier and John Reniewicki, redshirt seniors Jeff Bickert, Ryan Norton and Ryan Herson, redshirt freshmen Brandon Boys, Nick Dale and Ryan Normand, redshirt sophomore Cody Brazeal, and sophomore J.P. Nelson.
Like the men, the women will also feature 11 runners – redshirt seniors Shaina Corbin and Cristina Juan Torres, graduate students Madison Davis and Jen Owen, redshirt junior Adriana Olivas-Rivera, junior Chelsey Totten, redshirt sophomore Jenna Maack, redshirt freshman Lea Patek, and freshmen Samantha Ortega, Hannah Benoit-Bucher and Kaitlin Kaluzny.
“The big thing I want to take away is did we execute as a group,” Quintana said. “Did we abandon the race plan and run a bunch of individual races, or are we actually trying to stay together and run as a team? The plan is to stay together as a group.”
The men will have to endure the heat a little longer than the women as they take off for their 4.25-mile battle at 4:45 p.m. from Del Ulrich Golf Course, while the women will not take off until 5:30 p.m. for a 3-mile stretch.
LAST YEAR AT THE DAVE MURRAY INVITE
Both the men and women’s teams finished in third place last year in Tucson, with Norton being the highest returning finisher (17th). Reniewicki ran unattached and finished 15th with a time of 22:35.00. Boys was the only other current Sun Devil to compete, as he finished unattached.
The women finished with a combined time of 1:34:51.18, but do not have any of the competing athletes from last year lacing up this Friday.
UP NEXT
Both men and women will have another weekend to prepare before heading to cooler weather in South Bend, Ind. for the Notre Dame Invitational on Friday, Oct. 2 at 12:00 p.m. MST.