There is one word to describe the cross country event this weekend: big.

The men’s and women’s cross country teams travel to Lehigh, Penn., to take part in the Paul Shore Invitational against some of the best teams in the northeast.

“Sometimes it intimidates a lot of runners, especially when you see schools like Villanova and the Tennessee women. Harvard will be there,” coach Jackie Sgambati said. “They’re teams that we never really run against. It’s a little more intimidating.”

More often than not the cross country teams travel to race against Appalachian State University or Western Carolina University where Sgambati knows what to expect, but this time it’s a whole new picture.

“Racing is racing when it comes down to it,” senior captain Eric Garren said. “A lot of these teams are ones that we haven’t raced before. It will be a different experience because we are not used to running in that large of a race.”

Garren said that this race is one of the biggest in his career as Elon matches up against schools like Bucknell University, Princeton University, Syracuse University, University of Massachusetts and Penn. State.

All will be in attendance among a field of more than 80 men’s teams and nearly 90 women’s teams.

The overall size of the race makes where the team finishes almost insignificant, because it’s almost inevitable that the team will finish lower than normal, but that’s expected.

“Normally we go to meets where there might be 15 other teams, or 20 other teams; this is probably the biggest race we will have ever gone to,” Sgambati said. “We might finish second or third in most races or even fifth or sixth, in this race we could finish 25th or 30th.”

Individually, it’s the same.

“In this one if you finish top 50, you’re doing pretty well,” Sgambati said.

Experience could play a huge part in the race, especially considering that most of the runners on the team have never encountered something like this before.

“There are a few people on my team that have not run in huge races like this, but there are definitely some that have,” Sgambati said.

But with so many people at the start, approximately 320 for the men’s event and 340 for the women’s event, the start of the race will be more important than ever before.

“Getting out really quickly will be key to our team and how well we finish as a team,” Garren said. “There are so many people at the line right when the gun goes off. If you get stuck behind a pack you’re going to be playing catch up for the entire time.”

The massive size of the event has caused the directors of the event to schedule multiple races for the same day.

There will be a varsity and junior varsity event for both the men’s and women’s events as well as a men’s and women’s non-Division I race, all in hopes of trimming the field.

Managing Editor: Justin Hite - 09/26/07