The meet will take place at Van Cortlandt Park in Bronx, New York. The women will begin their part of the meet at 11 A.M. before the men compete at noon.
Last Time Out:
Both teams wrapped up their regular season at the USF Invitational. Originally, the Eagles were scheduled to compete in the FSU Invitational, but due to Hurricane Michael, the schedule was reset. Nonetheless, the men's team finished first out of 24 teams while the women finished second.
Stetson and Jacksonville also competed in the meet
On the men's side, six of the runners finished in the top-20 with sophomore Lucas Kiprotich paving the way by crossing the finish line first with a time of 26:42.12.
Grad student Ronny Greenup and sophomore Boniface Mutai joined Kiprotich in the top-10 finishing fifth (Greenup) and eighth (Mutai) while freshmen Austin Redondo (12th: 28:06.77) and Bryce Bell (15th: 28:28.09) and sophomore Joe Salerno (18th: 28:30.99) rounded out the top-20.
For the women, three of the runners finished in the top-20 with senior Carley Lutzow paving away with her second first place finish of the season with a time of 17:36.54.
As a result of her finish, the Illinois native was named A-SUN Women's Runner of the Week for the second time this season.
"Both Carley and the women's team ran a fearless race at USF," said head coach Cassandra Goodson on Lutzow earning runner of the week. "It has taken years of hard work on and off the course as an athlete and as a person for her to get where she is now. I'm proud of how she has developed as a runner and person overall."
In addition, Lutzow was named Eagle Scholar-Athlete of the Month.
"Carley is more than deserving of this honor," said Goodson on Lutzow being named scholar-athlete. "She's coachable, hungry and eager to grow and learn daily! I'm so proud of how she's developed as a person academically and as a runner. She's everything that we hope for in a student-athlete."
The other two runners that joined Lutzow in the top-20 were fellow seniors Angela Cruz Gonzalez and Bridget Schoffman.
Gonzalez finished in 17th with a time of 19:33.67 while Schoffman, a former FGCU women's soccer player, finished 19th with a time of 19:36.32.
Small Taste:
The Eagles have competed at the Van Cortlandt Park earlier this season when they participated in the Fordham Fiasco where the men finished third while the women finished seventh.
NJIT and Lipscomb also ran in the Fordham Fiasco with FGCU earlier in the season.
A-SUN Championship History:
Since being in the A-SUN, both teams have been trying to win the A-SUN Championship meet, but to no avail. Both teams are looking for their first A-SUN championship to claim an automatic bid in the national championship.
On the men's side, the highest finish for them was third place, in which they did that twice (2015, 2016).
On the women's side, they also finished as high as third place on two occasions (2014, 2015).
Last year, the men finished 5th in the championship while the women finished 7th.
Four runners last season represented FGCU and ran in the NCAA South Regional Championship: Lutzow, sophomore Cole Pruim, Carlin Berryhill (now competing for Bethune-Cookman), and junior Jan Figueroa with Lutzow being the only women's runner on the team.
Lutzow finished 48th with a time of 21:14.9 for the women's meet while Pruim (118th), Berryhill (88th) and Figueroa (143rd) finished in their placings in the men's meet.
Lipscomb, who won last year for the men, will be defending their championship. The Bison have won the championship meet four times ('13-15, 17), the most out of all the members of the A-SUN on the men's side.
For the women, UNF will be defending their part of the championship. The Osprey have won two championship meets ('10, '17). Lipscomb holds the most championships for the women on six straight occasions ('11-16).
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