Cullowhee, N.C. – Looking to gain a leg up on some of the conference competition, the Western Carolina men's and women's cross country teams swing through the South Carolina Upstate this weekend as they take on the Furman Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 14.
In additon to this weekend's races, Furman hosts the 2024 Soutnern Conference Cross-Country Championships Nov. 2, thus this weekend giving the Catamounts an early-season opportunity to get a lay of the land on the competition course.
The Catamounts will see 10 teams scattered across the men's and women's races and some familiar faces from the season-opening run at the Covered Bridge Open. Montreat, UNC Asheville, and the South Carolina Gamecocks all shared the trails with the Catamounts in Boone, with the Gamecocks taking a women's team win at the event. For the first time this season, the Purple and Gold will get a strong sense of where they fall within the conference as three other SoCon teams – host and nationally ranked Furman, VMI, and Wofford – will be in the running in Greenville.
A combined 20 Catamounts are expected to run the trail located at and around the Furman University Golf Course with the men's and women's teams both having 10 entrants.
The men's team looks to be led by week one's SoCon Runner of the Week Drew Zink who set a personal record – or PR – in the 6K race at the the Covered Bridge Open. He was followed in the Catamount scoring order by freshman Logan Gullett, Lawson Mecom, Will Mitchell, and John Davis. The Catamount men will also run Justin Hayes, Noah Luke, Peter Schihl, Knox Witherspoon, and Calvin Smith.
Katherine Hopkins paces the women's team, which will see Alesea Caldwell, Landey Green, Amaya Hicks, Sara Klemm, Hannah Kliner, Grace Lane, Riley McKinney, Peyton Skoglund, and Braelyn-Shae Wahy on the trail beside her.
Saturday's Meet Information:
Furman Invitational | 400 N Highway 25 Byp, Greenville, SC 29617
Teams (11): Furman, Western Carolina, VMI, Montreat, Wofford, Charleston-southern, Southern Wesleyan, Gardner-Webb, Belmont-Abbey, UNC-Asheville, USC Gamecocks
Womens 5K: 9:15 a.m.
Men's 6k: 10:00 a.m.
Up Next for The Catamounts:
The Catamounts will be back in action next Saturday, Sept. 21, for the Brevard Invite before taking a few weeks off to prepare for the Upstate Invite in October.
Keep track of everything related to Catamount cross country and WCU Athletics through its social media outlets on Facebook (fb.com/catamountsports) and Twitter (@catamounts, @catamountxctf).
