Cross Country To Run In Rhodes Invitational Saturday

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – It's rare that coaching staffs talk about defending championships as their teams attempt to repeat, but that's the approach Tigers head coach Kevin Robinson is taking as his University of Memphis cross country squads head into the 2017 Rhodes College Invitational Saturday, Sept. 16.

2017 Rhodes College Invitational/Saturday, Sept. 16

Time (CT)	Race	Distance
8:30 a.m.	Men	8k
9:15 a.m.	Women	5k

Competing teams: Alabama A&M, Arkansas State, Belhaven, Bethel (Tenn.), Blue Mountain, Central Arkansas, Christian Brothers, Crowley's Ridge College, Cumberland (Tenn.), East Texas Baptist, Henderson, Hendrix, Jackson State, Jacksonville State, LeMoyne-Owen, Lyon, Memphis, Millsaps, Mississippi University for Women, Mississippi College, Mississippi Valley State, North Alabama, Ozarks (Ark.), Rhodes, Tougaloo, Union (Tenn.), UT-Dallas, UT-Tyler

Head coach Kevin Robinson on Rhodes College Invitational, look-back to season opener
"I love the feel at Shelby Farms. It's a great course, and it's more traditional cross country. We have a couple of titles to defend Saturday. That's what we've been talking to the team about. Let's go and compete, bring back those titles and repeat and keep getting better.

"I want to see improvement this weekend. I want to see that the last week or so of training has made us stronger mentally and physically. We're just getting rolling and trying to stay healthy. We're still trying to see where our runners are at and how fit they are. We raced at the Brooks Twilight Classic after only four days of training. We're not in great shape yet, but we did have some perform well. It was a pretty good start to the season.

"What stood out most from the Brooks Twilight Classic was Arnica (Zitting). She won the event as the top collegiate finisher. She put together a really strong race, and across the board, the women's squad did a good job. For the men's side, we ran without Julian (Sanchez-Pinto), who is one of our frontrunners. He was a little banged up for the opener, but he's back training now and feeling good. The men, with a healthy Julian, are a good team. Those who competed in the opener did well. Brock did a great job, and Matthew ran an excellent race, and improved his personal-best by over a minute from the previous year."

Tigers Tidbits

The Tigers women's team is running its second-straight 5k race of 2017. The men's squad, which raced four miles (6.4k) at the season-opening Brooks Twilight Classic, jumps up to an 8k race Saturday.
Saturday's race starts a stretch in which the Tigers run three weeks in a row. After Saturday's Rhodes College Invitational, Memphis competes in the Sept. 23 Austin Peay Invitational and then runs in the Sept. 30 Greater Louisville Classic. The last time Memphis ran on more consecutive weekends was in the 2007 campaign when the Tigers competed in five-straight races without an off weekend.
The Rhodes College Invitational is the second of four races Memphis runs before the calendar turns to the month of October in 2017. The last time a Tigers men's team ran four races before Oct. 1 was in 2002. For the women's program, the last time came in 2001.
The Tigers women's team returns six runners that finished in the top-25 of the 2016 Rhodes College Invitational.
The Memphis men's squad returns four runners that placed in the top-25 of last season's Rhodes College Invitational.

Memphis at Rhodes College Invitational/Last Five Team Finishes

Year	Women's Place	Men's Place
2016	1^st	1^st
2015	1^st	3^rd
2014	1^st	2^nd
2013	3^rd	1^st
2012	1^st	1^st

Memphis at Rhodes College Invitational/Individual Champions

Women	Men
Martina Rodriguez Sala, 2015, 2016	James Maglasang, 2010, 2011, 2012
Louisa Lingley, 2012
Emily Malinowski, 2007

Cross Country To Run In Rhodes Invitational Saturday

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Martina Rodriguez Sala

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Cross Country To Run In Rhodes Invitational Saturday

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