Earlier this week, the men’s cross country team announced it will be bringing in an additional runner to the lineup when the team takes the field at the Pre-National meet this Saturday.
The additional talent will come from Bobby Mack, who is returning to running for the first time since 2004.
“He is going to be huge,” redshirt junior John Martinez said. “He’s coming back for one of the biggest races of the year. We’re really excited for cross country seeing as how it is a team effort.”
Mack, who earned All-America status at the National Championships in 2004, will add to the already depleted lineup that suffered the loss of six seniors following last season.
The team has already begun to benefit, not only from the additional player, but also from the inspiration that Mack provides for many of the younger runners.
“He has the experience, the ability, the talent — he has everything,” Martinez said. “When you have someone like that, a lot of the younger guys kind of gravitate towards him.”
Martinez admits that at the beginning of the season, team wasn’t certain if Mack would return to the program. Thus the players wanted to keep the information under the radar.
“We didn’t really want to let the cat out of the bag because he had a lot of doubt whether he wanted to come back,” Martinez, said. “He is in graduate school and works part-time, so he has had a lot on his plate.”
After making the commitment to come back, Mack had no difficulty securing another year of eligibility.
“Recently he was ruled good for a sixth year of eligibility,” coach Rollie Geiger said. “If you look at the NCAA rules and regulations it was very clear that he would qualify.”
The addition of Mack comes as exciting news for the Pack who are in an otherwise discouraging situation. Redshirt senior Gavin Coombs suffered a heel injury during a training last week.
“He attempted to do a workout on Thursday of last week and we weren’t sure if he had a plantar or what, but he couldn’t finish the workout,” Geiger said. “He is starting back running, but to protect him for later competitions it made more sense for him not to travel this weekend.”
The team remains optimistic that he’ll be back in time for the ACC Championships on Nov. 1.
The No. 18 women’s team will also be looking to receive criteria points towards qualifying for the National Championships when they travel to Terre Haute, Ind. with the No. 15 men.
With the top six women’s teams in the nation racing at this event, the young State teams will face their toughest challenge to date.
“We’re all pretty nervous because there are a lot of freshmen running, but I’m excited to be running in a really big race,” freshman Caroline Kirby said. “This meet’s atmosphere is going to be different because there will be so many runners from good teams.”
