PHILADELPHIA – The Saint Joseph's men's and women's cross country squads will compete on their home course, the Belmont Plateau in West Fairmount Park, this Friday in the Friend Big 5 Invitational. The women's 4,000m race will begin at 5:30 p.m. while the men's 6,000m race is scheduled to kick off their race at 6:00 p.m. The meet, hosted by Temple, is scheduled to feature all five Big 5 schools in Saint Joseph's, Temple, La Salle, Penn, and Villanova.
The 5K race is an inaugural run in honor of Roswell Friend, a member of the Temple cross country team who passed away in 2011.
The men's team is coming off of a second-place finish at the season-opening TCNJ Blue/Gold Classic on August 31. Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week Daniel Savage led the Hawks with a second-place individual finish (15:39.74) while classmate John Mascioli (3rd), junior Brady Deckert (9th), sophomore Quinn Davis (14th) and freshman Kevin Trimmer (16th) rounded out SJU's top five.
Senior captains Elizabeth Barrett (4th. 19:20.70) and Emma Slattery (5th) led the Hawks to a tie for second-place at the TCNJ Blue/Gold Classic while rookie Sarah Renault (9th) and sophomores Emily Chaundy (12th) and Lauren Hehir (16th) rounded out the top five for the Crimson and Gray.
Last season, the Hawks saw the advantages of having the Atlantic 10 Championship held on their home course as Slattery (All-Conference, 8th) and then-sophomore Logan Mohn (All-Conference, 7th) led SJU to high team finishes.
"I felt so strong coming up the hills and then going into the last 1200m, some of the girls came out too fast and starting coming back to me and I was able to pick a few off, so it was nice,” said Slattery. “It was such an advantage that I knew where Parachute Hill started and ended and could know what to expect."
"I was kind of far back but I wanted to go out conservative because I knew that the course was tough with a lot of hills in the last part of the race,” said Mohn. “We did a lot of workouts here just to make sure we knew every mile of the race and all of the footing, so it was definitely a benefit training here."
The race will be spectator-friendly, with the women running four 1,000m loops on the main field and the men running six 1,000m loops, and will serve as the Hawks' only local meet of the season. For directions to the Belmont Plateau, please click here.
