The Elon University cross country team just keeps getting better as it strives for a record breaking season.
It started in mid-August with the women’s program being selected by Southern Conference coaches as the league favorite. Then, just a couple days later, the ladies found themselves in the USTFCCCA preseason rankings for the first time in program history.
Looking to keep their hot streak alive as the season started, the women’s team won their first meet of the season Aug. 31 at the Demon Deacon Quad at Wake Forest University.
In polls released last week prior to the Elon Invitational, the ladies jumped two spots to No. 11 in the Southeast Region.
“Being ranked certainly raises the expectations of our team for themselves,” said Elon head coach Christine Engel after the meet Saturday.
“It’s certainly a little bit more exposure when talking to recruits and things like that, but it’s definitely great for our program.”
This past weekend at the Elon Invitational, the only event hosted by Elon this season, the women’s team decisively took the top spot for the second consecutive year, finishing with a total of 20 points.
This is only the third time in program history that the women’s team has earned back-to-back wins. The ladies won the College of Charleston Invitational last year, then went on to take the Elon Invitational the following week.
The top three finishers for the Phoenix on the women’s side included sophomore Haylee Dawe in third, sophomore Tereza Novotna, who transferred to Elon this season, in fourth, and freshman Elyse Bierut in fifth.
“They’re really strong. Every year we keep getting more and more recruits,” said junior runner Ally Oram. “Coach is doing an awesome job and it’s helping our team get stronger and stronger.”
On the men’s side, Elon held on to beat the University of North Carolina at Greensboro by just three points to take the top spot with 23 points. It was the first team win for the men since they won the Elon Invitational in 2009.
“I feel good about how today went,” Engel said. “We did a good job but there’s definitely a lot of work to still be done. I don’t think this was our best overall effort. There’s a lot of things that we’re going to need to do better as the season progresses but I think this is a good start.”
Men’s junior runner Jimmy Stevenson echoed a similar message to what his coach said.
“Our goal was to win the race and that’s what we did,” Stevenson said. “I think it was a good day for Elon men’s and women’s cross country. We’re happy with it, but we’re certainly not content with how we performed and we want to continue to push on from here and reach more of our goals that we set for ourselves.”
Next up for both teams, a trip to Charlotte for the Charlotte Invitational, which will be held Sept. 28.
“We’ll take that momentum and continue that over the training throughout the next two weeks and see how we can perform in Charlotte and then in Louisville down the road about a month from now," Stevenson said.