Women's XC Ready for Battle in Beantown

Friday, September 22

Boston, Mass.

3:00 PM

Boston College

Boston College Invitational

Photo by: Tom Connelly

September 19, 2017 | Women's Cross Country

Cross Country prepares for fifth annual Coast-to-Coast meet

By: Athletic Communications

Chestnut Hill, Mass. - On Friday, Sept. 22 the Boston College women's cross country team will participate in the fifth annual Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown at Franklin Park in Boston, Mass.

The women's 5K will go off at 3:00 p.m. and the combined men's and women's 5K will start at 4:15 p.m. There are 23 women's teams attending the meet.

2017 Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown Teams:
Albany
UAB (Alabama Birmingham)
Boston College
Boston University
Brown
Cornell
UConn
Dartmouth
Georgetown
Harvard
Illinois
Indiana
Lehigh
Maine
UMass Amherst
UMass Lowell
UNH
Northeastern
Providence
URI
Rutgers
Syracuse
Vermont

Of the 23 teams attending, four are ranked among the top 30 in the NCAA according to the U.S. Track & field Cross Country Coaches Association. Providence (No. 7), Indiana (No. 26), Georgetown (No. 27) and Harvard (No. 28) are among the ranked teams.

The Eagles will also face off against ACC foe Syracuse. The Orange were picked to finish third in the ACC according to the Cross Country ACC Coaches Poll.

The women finished in fourth place out of 13 teams in a field of 115 runners at the Coast-to-Coast meet last year. Head coach Randy Thomas is looking for another strong performance from his team this Friday.

"We have teams coming from as far away as University of Alabama Birmingham, University of Illinois, Georgetown and then all of the top programs in the northeast will be represented," Thomas said. "It's probably the biggest college Division I cross country race in the nation for this weekend. This is where things really start to kick in. If we can get into the top seven of the 22 teams that would be a real good first step. We'd have to get five runners in the top 45 to do that and we certainly have that ability."

Thomas has been preparing the team to be at their best when they face off against a larger field of runners on Friday afternoon.
"We're trying to take one step at a time each week," Thomas explained. "When they leave practice every day whether it be through strength and conditioning, the workouts that they do, the extra training sessions or even the easy runs, they feel like they accomplished a little bit and made themselves just a little bit better."

The results for the races will be posted on Millennium running.