Cross Country Season Preview
As we inch closer to the start of the fall sports season, gopetrels.com is previewing the teams about to get underway. Here's a look at the 2010 men's and women's cross country teams.
The 2010 Men's and Women's Cross Country seasons get underway next month and both teams will be looking to stride to new heights with a bevy of new talent on their respective rosters. Let's take a look at how the 2010 men's and women's teams stack up.
Women
The women are captained by four-year performer senior Michelle
Chelemer of Raleigh, N.C. Chelemer is joined by returning lettermen
sophomore Bekky Strom from McDonough, Ga. and sophomore Sherry
Blystone of Cumming, Ga. Chelemer, Strom and Blystone form the
nucleus of a squad that earned placement on the U.S. Track and
Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCA) NCAA Division
III Academic All-America Team.
Joining the returnees are senior Ari Brown of Snellville, Ga., sophomore Ify Akiti of Tucker, Ga., freshman Tirzah Brown of Fort Myers, Fla. and freshman Khadija Nisar. Ari Brown has competed for the women's soccer and basketball teams while at Oglethorpe and ran for powerhouse Brookwood in high school. Akiti returns to the sport after a two year layoff while Tirzah Brown, a JEO scholar, joins the team after running successfully for Fort Myers High School. Nisar will be looking forward to the NCAA Regionals which will be held in Memphis near her hometown of Germantown, Tenn.
The women's squad will certainly have their work cut out for them as four of their scheduled nine opponents appear in the USTFCCA Preseason Top 10 rankings.
Men
The men are captained by their only returning letterman from 2009,
senior Ellis
Jones of Griffin, Ga. Jones is joined by one other
upperclassman, sophomore Max Duwat of West Palm
Beach, Fla. and the remainder of the roster is filled out by
freshman.
Among those freshmen are Billy Colbert of Warner Robbins, Ga., Phillip Belcher of Naples, Fla., Alan Aguirre of Chihuahua, Mexico, Robbie Capps of Evans, Ga., Steeve Birota of LeLamentin, Martinique and Dustin Carnahan of Powder Springs, Ga.. Colbert figures to pace this group of harriers after placing 29th in the AAA State Championships while running for Perry High School.
Like the women, the men's schedule is equally daunting as six of their nine scheduled races are against teams that appeared in the USTFCCA Preseason Top 10 rankings. Both the men and women's squads will have one home meet in 2010, the annual Oglethorpe Invitational which will be run on October 16th at 9:00 a.m.
