A-10 Championship Central Live Results PHILADELPHIA – The La Salle men's cross country team will look to defend their Atlantic 10 title from last year on Saturday morning at Schenley Park in Pittsburgh, Pa. The men's 8k race is slated to get underway at 10:45 a.m.
"We are very confident," added senior
Ben Pershall. "The goal is always to go out and win a championship, we are capable of doing that. We haven't had a race this year that has showed our true potential. We have been working out really well and are really fit."
Senior
Nico Greco will look to defend his individual Atlantic 10 title from last year as he ran a 23:46.9 at last year's championships. Greco's time last year was the second fastest ever at the Atlantic 10 Championships with only Jean-Pierre Ndayisenga of West Virginia having a better time of 23:42.7 back in 1985.
Also returning from last year's championship team includes
Ian Barnhill,
Ben Pershall, and
Francis Ferruzzi. Overall the team has won two of the past three Atlantic 10 championships with 2011 joining last year's title.
"It's going to be a unique experience with the men coming in as defending champions," said head coach
Tom Peterson. "That is something to look up to and forward to. We return Nico, the defending champion at the A-10 meet, which is a great thing for us. Not only individually for Nico but for the team, to have that leadership and someone who has been there and been the best at the conference meet is always helpful. Combine that with some of the youth and the guys who don't quite have that experience at the A-10 level, mix that together and there is a potential for something pretty big."
La Salle enters the weekend ranked 15
th in the Mid-Atlantic Region by the USTFCCCA. They are the third highest ranked Atlantic 10 team with Saint Joseph's and Duquesne coming in a few spots ahead of them in the polls.
The Explorers have historically performed well at the conference championships. They have won eight Atlantic 10 Championships over the last 13 years, and will look for their tenth overall championship in program history this weekend.
