After coming off a good season in track and field, redshirt junior Andrea Alt and senior Greg Black will make their 2014 debuts for the Falcons.
In the previous season, Alt was the leading runner for Bowling Green in four of the five meets she was in. She also finished 65 out of 227 runners in the NCAA regionals, so many will be awaiting Alt’s performance in her first meet of the year.
Head Coach Lou Snelling, too, is looking forward to seeing her performance.
“Andrea Alt, this will be her first race of the season,” said Snelling. “It should be pretty good.”
She will be joined by fellow first timers of the season: junior Amanda Garlak and freshman Rebecca Schoff.
As for Black, he finished first twice in six out of the seven meets he competed in.
He also placed fifth out of 22 runners at the Eastern Michigan Open and placed in the top-100 runners at the NCAA Regional Championships at 97.
Assistant cross country coach Eric Thatcher is looking forward to seeing what Black is going to do on Friday.
“We’re excited to get a good baseline for what his senior year’s going to look like,” said Thatcher. “He’ll be our top guy this year … he’ll have a good opportunity with the level of competition this Friday to see where he’s going to fit in.”
As the Falcons’ only home meet of the season, Thatcher also expects to see some of the athletes’ family and friends to cheer them on their home grounds.
“I’m sure there will be some parents around to see what we can do on our home court,” said Thatcher.
With the University of Toledo coming down for the meet, expect to see an extra spark in the Falcons. Based off of the men’s practices earlier in the week, Thatcher says he suspects the Falcons will give all of their effort and then some.
“We have guys that are working hard and taking this thing seriously,” said Thatcher. “It’s a good opportunity against our biggest rival with Toledo coming down to see where we are.”
Junior Becca Rae is also excited for the meet against Toledo and the home crowd getting to see their Falcons compete.
“Since this is our only home meet of the season, against Toledo, we definitely want it to be competitive,” Rae said.
Alt and the women’s group will be up against Toledo, Cleveland State and Siena Heights. The men’s group will go against Toledo and Siena Heights.
The event takes place Friday afternoon at the Forest Creason Golf Course. The men will go first with the 8,000-meter race at 6:30 p.m and the women’s follow at 7:10 p.m. in the 5,000-meter race.
