June 16, 2016
FULL SCHEDULE
RENO, Nev. - For the first time since 2013, the Nevada Wolf Pack women's cross country team will host two home meets, highlighting the full 2016 schedule they released today.
The distance team will take on four regular season meets before the Mountain West Championships on Oct. 28 in Boise, Idaho. The Pack will open the season with two home meets, including the Nature's Bakery Nevada Twilight Classic and the Nevada Chase Race. Nevada will then travel to Sacramento, Calif. for the Hornet Invite and the Pre-National Invitational in Terre Haute, Ind. After the conference championships, those qualifying will compete at the NCAA Mountain Region Championships on Nov. 11 for the chance to go to nationals, held on Nov. 21.
Nevada's annual Twilight Classic will be held under the lights at its home on the Shadow Mountain Park course in Sparks, Nev. on Friday, Sept. 2. Nevada won the home opener last season, and will be looking for a repeat to start the season strong. The course at the Classic will be the only 4,000 meter course for the team this season, and actually the only course not coming in at 6,000 meters, the distance of conference and NCAA championship courses.
"Running 5,000 meter courses is fun for the student-athletes because they can compare their high school times to where they are now," said head coach Kirk Elias, who will be entering his 13th season as skipper of the program. "But, with more standard distances on the schedule, I think our team will be even more ready for championships."
Following the Twilight Classic will be the Nevada Chase Race, a meet that hasn't been held since 2013. The meet will be ran at Sierra Sage Golf Course in north Reno. A chase race differs from a normal cross country meet. Those seeded at seventh and lower will go on the first gun. The next two seeds will start at the next gun, approximately 20 seconds after the first, and so on and so forth until all racers have begun racing. Such a start pattern switches the manner in which the race is finished.
"By the end of the race, instead of the runners being spread out across the course, the field actually gets closer together," said Elias. "You'll have an athlete that isn't used to leading the pack, looking back with just hundreds of meters to go and thinking 'Hey, maybe I can win this thing.'"
Nevada will be looking to improve on its seventh place finish at the Mountain West Championships last year. In a conference that holds the 2015 national champions, two teams who were consistently ranked in the top 10 last year, and the number one ranked runner in the country, the Pack will be up against some tough competition heading into the this season. Some strong returners for the Pack as well as what Elias calls his best recruiting class ever will make the 2016 Wolf Pack season one to watch.
