I have a confession to make. I'm sort of playing hooky this week.
I'm not at FloSports HQ in Austin, Texas. I'm not anywhere near Texas, actually. Flo Production Manager Daniel Kalbacher and I are road tripping through the Carolinas this week to film Workout Wednesday videos for the upcoming cross country season.
The first high school stop was in Greer, South Carolina yesterday afternoon, where we met the nation's fastest girls team over 5k (18:43 team average) so far this season in the Riverside Warriors. After winning large regional invitationals in back-to-back weekends, Riverside made the jump from unranked to No. 17 in the Saucony Flo50 National XC Team Rankings, released today.
We joined them for their first hill workout of the season. Details TBA... you'll have to wait for the Workout Wednesday video for that!
The Warriors beat Pre-Season No. 17, Green Hope (NC), 49-99, in the season-opening Providence Invitational, where they boasted a 43-second top five spread and 18:43 average over 5k. Last weekend, they won the Eye-Opener with a 57-second spread and 19:06 average.
Their secret weapon is eighth-grader Jessie Crowley, who has raced alongside Foot Locker finalists Libby Davidson and Logan Morris in her first two races of the year. She has made significant progress, as she ended last fall with a personal best of 18:54. In 2015, Crowley is already down to 18:16 and eyeing the sub-18 minute barrier.
"I don't really know like how it feels because it's just exciting," she said about competing with nationally elite girls. "I'm just excited to see in the future how fast I can be."
The Warriors are two-time South Carolina state cross country champions. Last year, they entered the Nike Cross Regionals - Southeast with a No. 3 seed, but faded to 11th in the championship qualifier due to lack of experience.
Head coach Eric Cummings will bring the squad to the Coaches Classic this weekend at the Sandhills Research Center in Columbia - home of the November state championship, where the Warriors will look to three-peat.
We're on the road to North Carolina now. But, wait - where else have we gone?
The Furman University men's program was our first workout bright and early (and dark!) on Tuesday morning. The Paladins are ranked No. 31 on the FloTrack Saucony Flo50 National Rankings.
We hit the first workout of our #workoutwednesday road trip with @runfurman this morning, as the Men ran 3-4x 2 Mile Repeats! Follow @Milesplit on SnapChat for a behind the scenes look over the next seven days #wow #paladins #squad #FUXC #FUTF #crosscountry #trackfam #tracknation #roadtrip #southcarolina
A photo posted by MileSplit (@milesplit) on
We stuck around the track and field complex to chat with Stephanie Garcia, just hours before she jetted off to Brussels, Belgium to race the 3,000m Steeplechase this weekend. The Furman Elite/Team New Balance runner placed ninth in the steeple at the IAAF World Championships in Beijing, China last month.
Stephanie Garcia is ready to get after it for one more steeple race & PR in Brussels this weekend. She let us film her run 1x1k flat, 2x400m with hurdles, 2x300m flat, 2x200m hurdles before jetting off to Belgium this afternoon. #wow #workoutwednesday #newbalance @steph_steeples @nbrunning @runfurman #FUXC #FUTF #FurmanElite #tracknation #trackfam #alwaysinbeta
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Follow @MileSplit on SnapChat for a behind-the-scenes look at the road trip!
