Both of the VMI cross country teams are set for action at this Saturday's Big South Championships, to be hosted by Radford at Blacksburg Middle School. The women's 5K begins at 10:30, while the men's race starts at 11:30. VMIKeydets.com will be on hand to provide updates via Twitter throughout the meet, and all relevant links are above.
The VMI men will be remembering a lost friend during their race, as they will wear green and yellow ribbons in memory of Robert Sagar, the twin brother of former Keydet standout Matt Sagar. Robert was a distance runner for William & Mary who graduated in May of 2010, and he passed away Wednesday during a run.
The Keydets are paced by a solid trio of runners up front. Felix Kitur had a sixth-place effort at the Charlotte Invitational, while Andrey Dmitriev set a new personal best at the Blue Ridge Open on Oct. 16. Dmitriev's 8K time bettered the mark he put up at the World Junior Championships in 2009. Senior Ermin Mujezinovic, a former all-conference honoree, is also a strong runner with the potential to earn an All-Big South time Saturday morning.
VMI's top three is backed up by #4 runner Ian McGinn, who has put up multiple personal bests this year, and freshmen Cabell Willis and Jordan White. Willis and White are very evenly matched at #5 and #6, to the point where they have finished with identical times in two consecutive races. In terms of the team competition, the Keydets will have to contend not only with Liberty and defending national champion Sam Chelanga, but also with High Point and their top three of Neal Darmody, Jevin Monds and Patrick Crawford.
The VMI women come in as one of the favorites, having fired their opening salvo with a dominating effort on this course at the Big South Preview, when they came up just four points shy of a perfect score en route to an easy win. Senior Hannah Granger won that event going away, and will be bidding to become the first back-to-back Big South champion since 2001-2002, when Anne Marie Moutsinga of Coastal Carolina won the crown (Moutsinga also won in 2004). Freshman Tammy Cheung is one of the top contenders for Freshman of the Year, while last year's recipient of that honor, sophomore Jenna Moye, sits in the #3 spot. The back end of VMI's lineup, with Rebecca Sweeney, Leah Schubel, Corinne Lariviere and Molly Western, has posted personal bests repeatedly this season, and could be a key to the result on Saturday.
While the Keydets dominated the Big South Preview, two teams did not field full squads at that meet, and those two programs should be their chief competition this weekend. Liberty brings in Jennifer Klugh, the redshirt sophomore who has dominated the conference this year, to go with former Big South runner-up Dacia Bushman and the highly regarded Hailey Neal, while Coastal Carolina fields a very deep team, with no runner being well ahead of the others. High Point, who finished second at the Preview meet, has improved drastically throughout the season and will play an important role in the overall outcome of the event.
For more information on the Big South Championship, click on the articles below -
Oct. 26 - Scouting the Competition - Women's Cross Country
Oct. 27 - Video Preview
