Sept. 14, 2007

ATLANTA - With one meet out of the way, the Georgia Tech men's and women's cross country teams will increase their running distance this Saturday morning at the Vanderbilt Classic in Nashville, Tenn.

"The Vanderbilt Classic will be a good opportunity for our men and women to step up in distance against some solid competition," Head Coach Alan Drosky said. "The men will race 5 miles and the women will race 3.1 miles, both courses longer than our opener at Chattanooga last Friday."

The men will kick off the morning with an 8k race beginning at 9 a.m. Tech, ranked twelfth in the South Region will face some steep competition including Belmont, ranked fourth in the South Region, Missouri, ranked sixth in the Midwest Region and host Vanderbilt, ranked 14th in the South Region, in a race that features fifteen participating universities and colleges.

The Tech women, ranked fifth in the South Region, expect to be on the line at 10 am in a race that will feature tough opponents from host Vanderbilt (#4 in the South Region), Missouri (#8 in the Midwest Region), Belmont (#9 in the South Region), and Central Florida (#15 in the South Region). In all, seventeen different universities and colleges from around the region will run in the 5k race.

"With Vanderbilt, Missouri, and Clemson's women, and others, we will line up against some good programs," Drosky added. "We look to keep solidifying our team effort, paying attention to the time gap between our first and fifth runners. The smaller that gap the better we'll do as a team."

At the previous meet, seniors Nisha Kurian, Jenny Sims and Elena Linn led the women to a first-place finish, placing second, third and ninth, respectively. The men's team placed fourth at the UTC meet with senior David Herren crossing the line fourth overall and sophomore Iain Turnbull placing 14th in a stellar debut for the Jackets.