Plattsburgh State cross-country builds toward one thing: championships. This Saturday, the teams will be taking another step toward SUNYACs and regionals with the UAlbany Invitational meet.
Director of men’s and women’s cross-country and track and field at UAlbany Roberto Vives said the meet is open to all colleges in the Northeast.
“This will be the 48th year of the meet, and we have been having it since we were a DIII school, so we invite all the colleges in the Northeast,” Vives said.
Vives said the field where the runners will race is mostly flat with some rolling hills. He also said the track is spectator friendly as runners pass observers multiple times.
The meet will include teams from Division I, II and III schools: PSUC, Siena, RPI, Manhattan, St. Bonaventure, Monroe, Nyack, Binghamton, which will have only its women’s team, Colgate, Middlebury and Albany.
The Cardinals plan to use the meet to find out which of their runners are ready for SUNYACs and regionals.
Assistant cross-country coach Ryan Douglas said the Cards are bringing only their top athletes to the meet. He said the meet will be a good way for the team to run against some teams that are comparable to nationally-ranked Geneseo and Oneonta, and Cortland, who is right on the cusp of being in national rankings.
He said the race will be another step in the team’s preparation for the SUNYACs, which they have been building toward all year.
“They’ve been running and working up to this, so Albany is the end of a phase of training, and going into SUNYACs we will actually be working a little more on speed,” Douglas said. “We will be going and working on stuff on the roads, which is a little faster and a little easier on the legs.”
The goal with the UAlbany meet is to see who the prepared runners are for SUNYACs, so Douglas and head coach Andrew Krug are able to put out the top runners in the meet.
“Now we are just trying to see who will be racing on the regional team, staying healthy and trying to find out who indeed will be on the team for us at regionals,” Krug said. “This is our last race before SUNYACs, so we are using this again as a workout in preparation for them.”
Email Nick Topping at sports@cardinalpointsonline.com.
