Courtesy of N.C. State Track & Field and Cross Country
N.C. State XC Koon and Clairmonte
NC State Cross Country was set to start its season this weekend at the Adidas XC Challenge at Wakemed Soccer Park on Friday. Unfortunately, due to incoming Hurricane Florence the event was canceled.
The new start for both the men and women will be on Sept. 28 at the Nuttycombe Invitational in Madison, Wisconsin. After the opener, it will travel to Greenville on Oct. 12 for the Pirate Invitational before heading back to Wisconsin for the pre-NCAA meet on Oct. 13.
This will take the teams to the ACC Championships in Boston, Massachusetts on Oct. 26.
In 2017, the women won the ACC Championships with four top-ten finishers. Then it finished first for the second consecutive tournament at the NCAA Southeast Regional Championships in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Finally, it placed eighth at the NCAA National Championships in Louisville, Kentucky. There is hope for a similar season in 2018 as it returns five of the seven top runners from last year. Highlighting that group will be redshirt sophomore Dominique Clairmonte, junior Elly Henes and junior Beth Taye.
The men finished third at the ACC Championships, fourth at the Southeast Regional and 17th at the NCAA Championships. Returning even more runners from last season, the men’s team has nine of ten runners who competed in the ACC Championships a year ago.
Both teams competed in the NCAA Championships in 2017 and had successful season. With so many returning runners for both teams, there is no doubt that each plans to have a similar season or even build on the success from last year.