Govs start season’s second half at Louisville

APSU Men’s Cross Country

Clarksville, TN – Austin Peay State University men’s cross country team will continue its efforts to improve at the eight-kilometer distance when they travel to the Greater Louisville Cross Country Classic hosted by the Greater Louisville Sports Commission for the 11:00am, Saturday, eight-kilometer men’s blue race at E.P. Tom Sawyer Park.

Junior Enock Langat has led the Govs in each of the season’s first four races and slashed more than a minute off of his eight-kilometer time at last week’s Memphis Twilight where he finished 27th in the 264-man field. Sophomore Geofrey Kosgei has run second in each of the two previous races and slashed two minutes off his eight-kilometer time.

“We have some very specific goals for this weekend’s meet,” said Austin Peay head cross country coach Doug Molnar. “This will be a test to see if we can accomplish a set of goals that we’ve set for this race. We had some good individual performances last week with Enock Langat, Tyler Kepley, Genaro Martinez and Evan Collins all running personal bests for eight kilometers, but we didn’t run as a cohesive group. This week, we’ve talked about running as a team and the importance of it. Hopefully, the guys will take it to heart.”

This weekend’s meet will be the largest the men compete in this season with 109 teams from all levels of competition entered in the event’s three races. The Govs are seeded in the day’s second race where they will face 10 Division I opponents, including regionally-ranked Georgia Tech (South No. 13) and Kentucky (Southeast No. 14) as well as Ohio Valley Conference member Morehead State.

“This will be a good test as there are some outstanding teams in the meet and a large field of more than 1000 men competing,” said Molnar. “We’ll have 40 teams in our race alone. It will be something to see.”