Lady Govs look to close gap at PowerAde Invitational

APSU Women’s Cross Country

Austin Peay State University women’s cross country team will seek to continue its early season growth at the two-mile PowerAde Invitational hosted by Chattanooga, Friday night, at Moccasin Bend Race Course.

The Lady Govs opened their 2010 season with a ninth-place showing at the Belmont-Vanderbilt Cross Country Opener, last Friday. Freshman Miranda Weed finished the four-kilometer (2.5 mile) course with a time of 15:32.76 to lead the squad. Although the Lady Govs were fast in last week’s meet, they were unable to maintain close contact with one another, something they will seek to improve on in Chattanooga.

Austin Peay will square off against eight other squads, Friday, including host Chattanooga, which was ranked No. 14 in the South Region by the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. Other Division I schools include Kennesaw State, Lipscomb, Middle Tennessee and Tennessee State. Also competing will be Alabama-Huntsville and West Georgia, which are ranked third and 10th, respectively, in the USTFCCCA Division II South Region rankings.

“Last week, we placed six runners on our all-time top 20 list for four kilometers, which was a very good start to the year,” said APSU cross country coach Doug Molnar. “This week we hope to put that many or more on the all-time two-mile list. Miranda led the way last week with the third-best time ever and we need her to repeat that performance this week. We’ll need to close our gap between our number four and five runners. That will be our goal this week.”

Complete race results will be available at Chattanooga’s athletics website – www.GoMocs.com.