Athletes and teams alike are always looking for some sort of advantage, something that will give them a much-needed edge and help push them to victory. Competition is so extreme that any slight advantage, perceived or real, is welcome.
Several Elon University athletic teams thrive with home field advantage. Both men’s and women’s basketball teams finished with winning records behind extremely good form and loud, rowdy crowds while at home. Elon baseball’s success has been aided by good home records in recent years at Latham Park.
But one sport rarely reaps the benefits of home field advantage, even though it enjoys that luxury.
“The Elon Invitational is the only home event we have all season for cross country or track,” said Elon head coach Christine Engel. “It’s definitely nice for the runners to wake up in their own beds, walk across campus and get ready to race.”
The lone opportunity for Elon cross country to show off its talent at home comes at the fifth annual Elon Invitational Sept. 14. The runners are equally as excited about trying to make the most of their sole home event.
“It’s always nice to represent your school, especially to do better on your home turf,” said junior Luis Vargas. “The Elon Invitational gives us more motivation to do better and be better.”
Vargas narrowly missed out on winning the men’s race in 2012, but his second place finish propelled the Phoenix to their second overall win in the Elon Invitational.
In particular, the women’s team will be looking forward to the 2013 installment of the Elon Invitational, having won the race for two straight years.
“We like to race on our home course and to host other teams,” said sophomore Elyse Bierut, who finished the 2012 race fourth overall. “We practice on our course all season, but it’s nice to actually race on the course with competition there.”
With both the men’s and women’s teams experiencing home field advantage at the Elon Invitational, the interest and size of the event has grown in recent years.
“It’s a fun event for the community and more people on campus have started to become more interested,” Bierut said.
Both teams are looking to have a strong showing in the home event despite it being only the team’s second event on the season.
“It’ll be early in the season, but it’s important because it’s the women’s first 5K and the men’s first 8K,” Engel said. “So it’ll be the first opportunity to race the distance run at the Conference Championships.”
Engel also realizes it’s still a feeling-out process for many of the runners.
“For a lot of the runners, it’s getting their feet wet for the first time this season and hoping to build on that,” she said.
The race also acts as a way for both teams to get an early season look at their competition for the conference championship.
Local rivals University of North Carolina at Greensboro will once again compete in the Elon Invitational, and Engel said she believes UNCG will be the toughest competition in both the Invitational and the conference.
“They’ll definitely be in the hunt for a championship,” Engel said. “It’ll be very exciting getting to race against a conference team this early in the season.”
As exciting as the prospect of matching up against a talented rival is, it is important for the teams to keep the emphasis on themselves and not try to do too much, Vargas said.
“We try not to think about other teams because every team is different — the way they train is different,” he said. “We definitely look at past races from prior years and see the times from each team and we learn from them, but we don’t let that get too much in our heads. It doesn’t distract us. It just motivates us to get that extra second that separates first and second.”
But it is worth noting UNCG runners won both the men’s and women’s races in 2012, despite losing to Elon in the overall competition on both sides. As a junior with the Spartans, Chelsea Sumney won the women’s race with a time of 17:44. Then-freshman Abraham Kemboi won the men’s race by eight seconds over Vargas with a time of 25:29.
With only North Carolina A&T State University and UNCG confirmed to compete, the competition looks to be filled with local talent. In past years, other North Carolina schools such as Raleigh’s William Peace College, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Belmont Abbey College and Barton College have competed.
The Elon Invitational women’s race is scheduled for 9 a.m. Sept. 14, immediately followed by the men’s race at 9:40 a.m., starting and ending on South Campus’ intramural fields.