TOWSON, Md. – Tomorrow afternoon, the Towson University cross country team opens the 2018 season with the Towson Invitational race at Oregon Ridge.
Area schools have been racing in Cockeysville, Maryland to start the fall season for several years, previously named the Baltimore Metro Meet, the Towson Invitational uses the same location. Joining the Tigers to run will be Gallaudet, McDaniel and Morgan State. There will be 70 student-athletes running, with 38 women racing and 32 men in a separate race competing.
Head coach Mike Jackson is entering his fourth year at the helm, alongside returning assistant coach Henry Phelan and two new volunteer assistants, Daniel Harper and Sirena Williams.
New Beginnings
The 18-person roster boasts nine freshmen who bring with them a range of experience from their high school competition. With three runners from New York, two from New Jersey, two from Pennsylvania, one from Virginia and one from Maryland they join a core of upperclassmen who can pair up evenly to show them the ropes.
Returning Talent
The Tigers have two sophomores, five juniors and two seniors returning this season.
Abby Gauthier and
Shelby Bobbie, the two members of the class of 2019, will lead the way as the senior runners. Last season
Erica Israel won the Towson Invitational and she returns for her junior season this week. Gauthier took third in the season-opener and now-sophomore
Paige Keefer finished fourth. Then-sophomore
Nicki Iacaruso rounded out the top five for the first race of the year and is entering her junior season.
Scouting the Opponents
McDaniel and Morgan State have competed against Towson at Oregon Ridge for the past two years, this is Gallaudet's first appearance in the Towson Invitational. McDaniel is returning six runners with three freshmen on the roster after losing its top two runners to graduation in the spring. The Morgan State Bears enter the race with a strong team of returning student-athletes and one freshman entering her first year.
The 2018 Season
Towson's fall season includes three more races before the CAA Championships in October. On Sept. 15 the Tigers will travel not too far down the road to Annapolis for the Salty Dog Invitational hosted by the United States Naval Academy. Two weeks later, the team is scheduled to participate in the Paul Short Invitational at Lehigh in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Towson has one more trip to the Keystone State for the Penn State National Open on Oct. 12 to round out the regular season.
Tigers in Action
The cross country team participated in a joint community event with Morgan State for the Weinberg YMCA. The event was in preparation of the Battle for Greater Baltimore football game this weekend and the team was one of the Towson representatives at the event.
