BOONE, N.C. — The Appalachian State women's cross country team won its first Sun Belt Conference title last year, and the program will host a Sun Belt championship event for the first time this year.
A title as the host school would provide some synergy on Saturday morning at the State Farm Fields/Kennedy Trails Course in Boone.
App State's women will compete for a second straight Sun Belt championship when their 5K race begins at 9 a.m. The men's 8K race will follow at 9:45 a.m., and the entire meet will be streamed live on ESPN3.
"It means a lot to the alumni and a lot to the team to be able to compete in a conference championship right here in Boone," App State coach
Michael Curcio said. "Certainly, being a home-course advantage, you always like to have that — the confines of your own house and being able to do workouts on the course.
"We've been on this course going on 10 to 12 years, so kids really have an intimate understanding of how to get out, how to use the hills, how to use the turns. The kids are pretty excited."
App State lost just two of the runners who scored to help the Mountaineers win the 2016 women's title in steamy Dothan, Ala., with 43 points, 13 fewer than what second-place Coastal Carolina accumulated with its No. 5 runner placing 28th.
Departed senior
Tristin Van Ord finished second for App State, and its other four scorers were bunched together in eighth (
Emily Fedders), 10th (departed senior
Torre Moser), 11th (
Hana Ratcliffe) and 12th (
Natalie Kile).
Kerry Leonard finished 15th, meaning the Mountaineers would still have won by a point without Van Ord's second-place finish.
With Fedders and fellow junior
Phylissa Greeley leading the way this year, App State hopes to run as a pack again in the 2017 championship meet.
"I think it can be intimidating seeing a whole pack of five of us together, and I think that's what really got us the win last year," Greeley said. "A lot of people have stepped up, and that's what our goal was. We lost some big aspects of last year, and everyone's done their job."
After its top two standouts, App State has received a boost from the improvement and development of runners such as sophomore
Megan Scannell and junior
Katelyn Butler, who finished second in the 3,000-meter steeplechase during the 2017 Sun Belt Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
Leonard, Ratcliffe and Kile have also been top-seven mainstays for a team with a 41-4 record thanks to finishes of second place in all four regular season meets. The first two meets were also in Boone, and only ACC program North Carolina beat an App State team that finished ahead of Sun Belt rivals Coastal Carolina, Troy and Georgia State at the Mountain to Sea Duals.
"I'm really excited to have it on the home course because we've been able to do our workouts there this year, so we know what every mile and every inch of the course feels like," Fedders said. "Hopefully it'll give us an advantage. Even if it doesn't, we know what we have to do and know when it's hard and when we'd maybe be able to regain some ground. Being familiar with the course is comforting going into a big meet."
App State's women have won 11 conference championships in cross country, and the only local victory was at the Southern Conference championship meet in Blowing Rock in 1991. Western Kentucky in 2011 was the last Sun Belt women's team to win the conference title on its home course.
"It's important to race as a team and really pack up and work together," Fedders said. "That's one of the great things about cross country. It's an individual sport, but you're also on a team with these people that are really awesome. If we can work together and push each other throughout the race, give each other energy, I think that'll be our strength."
