The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Longhorn Invitational
Cross Country hosts final home meet of season
10.01.2015 | Track & Field / Cross Country
Longhorn Invitational set for 6 p.m. Friday
Longhorn Invitational Information
Course Map: Women's 5k | Men's 8K
Time: 6 p.m.
Where: Spicewood at Balcones Country Club | 11210 Spicewood Club Dr., Austin, TX 78750 - Map
AUSTIN, Texas – Texas fans and the running community get their last chance to see the Texas Cross Country teams in action at home this season on Friday night. The Longhorn Invitational is set to start at 6 p.m. from Spicewood at Balcones Country Club as Texas takes on a handful of teams from the area on Friday.
Texas will see competition from Incarnate Word, North Texas, Sam Houston State, TCU, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, UT-Arlington and UTSA.
A change to the race format was made earlier this week and the women will now be running a 5,000 meter race instead of 6,000 as originally planned, while the men will still compete in an 8k. Admission to the race is free.
Texas Cross Country Coach Brad Herbster said his team is ready to host its final home meet of the season and get another race under their belts while executing a race plan before heading to the Pre National Invitational two weeks.
"The women have something to prove," Herbster said. "We are really just trying to pack it in and do the best we can upfront, but also group it up. We got to group it up. The men did a great job last week of grouping up. Where the women did a great job for the first 4K but last 2K we just kind of fell apart. So we are really going to concentrate on bringing it home this time and making sure we are where we need to be and when we need to be there. "
The women's team enters the competition ranked No. 26 in this week's USTFCCCA Coaches Poll. The men are the leading vote getter just outside the Top 30. Both teams have won their two previous meets with the men and women both taking first at the Texas A&M Invitational on Saturday.
Despite not being ranked yet, the men have dominated both their races this year. With that in mind and a target on the women's back as the only ranked team in the field this weekend, junior Nate Moore said both teams are focusing on racing well before taking on ranked teams in two weeks.
"We are really just taking it one meet at a time. We won't really get the opportunity to establish ourselves as a ranked team until we race other ranked teams, and so that will be in about two weeks at Pre-National's in Louisville," Moore said. "So this week is helping tune us up more, get us all to workout, get another win in, boost our morale and confidence, then get through the next two weeks of training, and really go out there and show the nation who we are on the big stage."
The Spicewood Course is located at 11210 Spicewood Club Drive in Austin. To get to the course, take the Anderson Mill Road exit off Highway 183 and go west. Then turn south onto Spicewood Parkway and turn right at the stop sign at Spicewood Club Drive.
Texas Quotes
Coach Brad Herbster
On how has preparation gone with the shortest week of preparation of the season so far: It has gone well. The groups responded well. They have come back from A&M and done a nice job of just relaxing and not grinding it out, but just being positive, and working through some kinks. After you haven't raced for a while, especially the guys who haven't raced an 8K this season or even the women on a 6K, always makes it tough to bounce back at times, but they are doing a really nice job. For us it is an opportunity for us to get some more work in and prepare for the championship part of the season. For the women we will race hard, and take it easy at the same time with different style of shoes that we wear with both men and women just making sure we are recovering.
On the men still having something to prove despite the big win last week: Yeah, the win was good. We are still not getting enough votes in coaches' poll I guess to put us in that top 30. We are right outside at 31, but overall I feel the guys are hungry and they want to get out there and do well, but they also know this meet, North Texas will be tough. They will really come after it, but at the same time we are at home, and we are going to compete and compete hard.
On being comfortable at a familiar course: Yeah, I definitely think that is an advantage, especially this course. If it is a flat course not so much, but this course where the hills are pretty challenging it will be tough for the other teams. It will be unexpected for them to step on it and think 'oh man it is going to be flat. It is Austin. It is going to be fast.' The front half will be fast but the back half is really slow, lots of hills.
Junior Sandie Raines
On what goes into preparing for a meet with the shortest rest of the season thus far: The first couple of days we were all pretty tired. Our workout on Tuesday was a longer tempo and everyone kept it controlled, and kept it easy because we know we have a race this Friday. Thankfully, with this short turnaround the race this Friday is not going to be as intense as last week's was or the one that is in three weeks, so it is not too bad, but a lower week this week to prepare for the race.
On is it still a big thing to perform well this week, and proving yourselves: Of course, first of all this one is at Texas, so it is always a lot of pressure to perform well in front of the home crowd, but also we want to work on working together more and performing race day what we perform in practice every day.
On advantage of competing at a familiar course: We know what to expect. Obviously we know the hills, where it is rutty. We know where to pick it up, so we definitely have a really big advantage on this course. We are excited because it is our first year with it. It will be fun.
On sense of urgency to stay ranked and move up: Yes, of course there is a sense of urgency with it all. We want to get better and move up in the rankings. But I think at this point we are all comfortable with how much more fit we are this year than we were last year. So it is less we are trying to move up, but more we are trying to be who we are this year.
Redshirt Sophomore Nate Moore
On racing at a course that is familiar: We have been able to do one race and a run out there, so we are really familiar with kind of all the markers on the course, all the loops, where the hills are, and kind of where we can make moves to break away from the rest of the teams, so it helps a lot.
On a motivational factor to follow-up last meet's big performance: Yeah, it is huge. I mean coming off of a huge win last week where we really executed our game plan and ran together as a team. That obviously gives us a lot of confidence as a team where we have five guys who are really strong running together, and then a couple of the guys who are not too far behind. I think that everybody's confidence levels are pretty high and we are ready to roll for the rest of the season.
Players Mentioned
