Boston College Athletics
Boston College
Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown
Eagles Prepared for Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown
September 19, 2018 | Men's Cross Country
BC looks to top regional competition at home meet
CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – The Boston College men's cross country team will begin a slate of home meets on Friday, Sept. 21, competing in the Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown at Franklin Park.
The premier event marks the first of three weekends that the Eagles will compete at home as the course the Eagles run this weekend will be used for both the New England Championships on Oct. 6 and for the ACC Championships on Oct. 26.
Four of the competing teams – No. 10 Syracuse, No. 17 Virginia, No. 26 Washington and No. 30 Ole Miss – raced at the 2017 NCAA Cross Country Championship, while five of the programs placed in the top-10 of the Northeast Region last fall. Syracuse, currently ranked first in the Northeast region, won the 2017 Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown with 35 points and went on to win the Northeast regional in November. Other Northeast foes the Eagles will face include Stony Brook, Boston University, Brown and Harvard while No. 12 Campbell from the South East region rounds out the ranked teams.
"We are excited to be hosting the best cross country meet in the country this weekend, with five nationally ranked programs coming to our home course at Franklin Park," BC head coach Matt Kerr said. "We are squarely focused on competing with our Northeast rivals and our ACC opponents. We are ready to prove that we can compete with regionally ranked teams and be much more competitive within the ACC this year."
The Eagles opened the season with a third-place finish at the Nassaney Invitational on Sept. 8, highlighted by an overall individual win from senior Sean Burke. Coming off two weeks of training, the Eagles are ready to implement their plan and continue to develop the mental side of racing as the championship season approaches.
"Sean Burke is coming off a decisive win at Bryant and he will look for consistency in being a strong front runner," Kerr said. "Our team will look to keep the gap between one and five as small as possible as we work toward our team goals. Friday represents our first look at Franklin Park, and with three Boston meets in a row, we consider that a great advantage as we gear up for the ACC's."
The men's varsity 8K will begin at 3:30 p.m. at Franklin Park and live results for the meet can be found here.
Players Mentioned
