Oct. 31, 2008
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. --- The Samford University cross country teams will head to Spartanburg, S.C., this weekend to run in the 2008 Southern Conference Cross Country Championships on Saturday. The event is set to begin with the women's 5K race at 10 a.m. ET, followed by the men's 8K race at 10:45 a.m. The races will take place at Milliken Park in Spartanburg.
Last year in Cullowhee, N.C., Appalachian State won the men's championship and Chattanooga won the women's title. It was the third straight title for the Mountaineer men and the second straight for the Lady Mocs.
The Bulldog runners have had a good season so far under first year head coach Rod Tiffin. To open the season, the Samford women tied for fourth while the men took fifth at the Belmont Opener on Sept. 5. They then headed to Tuscaloosa to take part in the Crimson Classic and both teams walked away with third place.
The next competition was the toughest for the Samford force as they took on some of the top-ranked teams in the nation at the Auburn Tiger Invitational. The women grabbed ninth place and the men took 14th place. Next up was Samford's first look at Southern Conference competition. The Bulldogs headed to Greenville, S.C., to run in the Furman Invitational. Samford dominated as the women took first place and the men took second.
"It has been a great season for us so far," Tiffin said. "We feel all of our tough early season meets have sharpened our competitive edge for the SoCon meet. Those types of meets early let us know where we are and where we want to go in our training. It prepares us mentally and physically for the rigors of SoCon competition."
Although Samford has not seen a lot of league competitors this season to gauge what the competition will be like, Tiffin feels like his team is ready to surprise some people in the conference. The Bulldogs have set high goals for themselves and are on a good track to meet those goals.
"In cross country, it sometimes looks like you are comparing apples to oranges," Tiffin said. "Everyone is running on different courses and different distances which makes it hard for someone to compare talent levels of team. Our teams were ranked sixth in the preseason poles, which even as gracious as we outwardly responded, we felt as a team that it was a lack of respect for the numbers that were put up in the OVC. I guess you can say we have something to prove to ourselves and to the conference that Samford is a great program, athletic department and university. We are going there to win the meet on the women's side and finish in the top five on the men's side. We want to be the first Samford team to win a Southern Conference Championship."
Admission is free to the public and directions are posted on the SoCon Cross Country Championships page. A full recap and results can be found on the www.samfordsports.com as soon as results are made available to the public.
