VILLANOVA, Pa.—The nearly frozen, and currently snow-covered, Wisconsin tundra will be the setting this Saturday for the 2019 BIG EAST Cross Country Championships presented by Jeep. For the second time in the last three years and the fourth time in 11 seasons, the conference championships return to Wayne E. Dannehl National Cross Country Course. Saturday's meet begins with the men's race at 11:00 a.m. Central time (12 p.m. Eastern) followed by the women's race at 11:50 a.m. Central (12:50 p.m. Eastern) and an awards ceremony approximately 30 minutes after the conclusion of the women's race.
Fans can watch a live stream of the BIG EAST Championships by accessing the BIG EAST Digital Network on the conference YouTube channel, @BIGEAST Twitter feed and on Caffeine TV. Full coverage of both the men's and women's races begins at 10:55 a.m. Central time with Matt Schumacker and Piper Shaw calling the races. On-site interviews with coaches and student-athletes will follow after each race.
The men's and women's team titles on Saturday each appear to be shaping up as close battles between several top contenders, including the Wildcats in both races. On the men's side, Villanova will look forward to having its complete lineup running together after mixing and matching its personnel through the first few meets of the season while building towards the championship meets.
Senior stalwarts
Casey Comber (Maple Glen, Pa.) and
Andrew Marston (Wayne, Pa.) are the Wildcats two most experienced runners, with Comber the defending BIG EAST individual champion and both he and Marston being three-time first team All-BIG EAST performers. Graduate student
Nathan Rodriguez (Tempe, Ariz.) is slated to make his BIG EAST Cross Country Championships debut. The transfer from Iowa State missed last season with an injury but has been Villanova's second scoring runner in both of his starts this season at the Bill Dellinger Invitational and the UnderArmour Pre-National Invitational.
In their most recent race, the Wildcats came in eighth overall at the Pre-NCAA meet in a field of teams which included several of the nation's top-ranked squads. The result was an encouraging one for Villanova, which has gotten strong efforts at the meet from the trio of sophomore
Josh Phillips (Belrose, Australia), Rodriguez and redshirt freshman
Haftu Strintzos (Victoria, Australia).
On the women's side, the Wildcats have been strong at the top of the lineup with the combination of freshman
Maggie Smith (Halifax, N.S.) and sophomore
Lydia Olivere (Wilmington, Del.) so far this season. Smith was Villanova's top finisher at the Paul Short Run and the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational in her last two races, while Olivere was the individual champion of the season-opening Main Line Invitational last month. The second-year member of the Wildcats roster was a first team All-BIG EAST performer as a freshman a year ago.
Elsewhere in the Villanova lineup, fifth-year senior
Ann Campbell (Mission Hills, Kan.) has performed consistently this season and is a key contributor as a veteran presence in the lineup. She earned first team all-conference accolades for the first time in her career at last year's BIG EAST Cross Country meet. Freshmen
Nikki Merrill (Portsmouth, R.I.) and
Brynne Sumner (Canton, Ga.) have also fared well within the Wildcats lineup at all three meets this season.
Villanova is the defending women's team champion and has won a record 16 team titles in women's cross country. Last year was the Wildcats won both the team and individual crowns for the 11
th time overall and the first time since 2011. Since the first conference meet back in 1982, the women have garnered a total of 136 All-BIG EAST honors. The men's program has won six cross country titles, produced 12 individual conference champions and earned 105 All-BIG EAST accolades.
Saturday's BIG EAST Cross Country Championships are the first of three postseason meets on the schedule. Villanova will next prepare for the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional on Friday, November 15 on the Goodman Campus Course at Lehigh.
