Marshall University Athletics
MCGILL: Cross Country tries to seize rare opportunity to compete
10/30/2020 8:41:00 PM | Cross Country, Word on the Herd
Marshall men and women run at the C-USA Championships on Saturday
By Chuck McGill
HerdZone.com
Saturday morning, Marshall's cross country teams will run. What a joy that will be.
The Thundering Herd football team isn't the only MU program competing this fall. Saturday morning, at Veterans Park in Hoover, Alabama, the Herd runners will compete in the Conference USA Championships. This season has been anything but normal, but these squads are used to conquering unforgiving terrain.
"I tell them each time, 'This is a blessing and it could go away real quick," said Caleb Bowen, the men's and women's coach. "We've seen ourselves get shut down; we've seen other schools get shut down. We don't know if indoor season is going to happen, so let's take advantage of this while we have it."
Marshall competed twice previously this month: Oct. 3 at the Live in Lou Classic in Louisville, Kentucky; and the Blue Ridge Open on Oct. 16 at Appalachian State. The men placed seventh in Louisville, and both teams placed second in Boone, North Carolina. The women did not compete at the Louisville event, but that team regrouped and could be poised for a big day at the C-USA meet.
"The women's team has done a good job of being resilient," Bowen said. "We had five girls go down for contact tracing right before our first meet. Their ability to bounce back from that – because a lot of people would have shut it down – most people would probably give up. They haven't. They've done a good job of staying focused."
The Herd women are led by transfer Kyleigh Edwards, the team's top runner, and Abby Herring. Both runners could be in the mix for all-conference honors Saturday morning.
"Kyleigh has been our No. 1 runner all year," Bowen said. "The level of energy she brings is really cool. She challenges a lot of the girls to be better.
"Abby – anything shorter than a 5K and Abby is probably better than Kyleigh. Watching her progress from someone who didn't PR since her freshman year, kind of leveled off, and then made a huge improvement last ear. She was one second from scoring in the conference meet in track and we've never had a girl score in the mile."
Behind Edwards and Herring is Tori Dotson, a freshman from Mount Vernon, Kentucky, with a long history with the Herd.
"Her family is from Marshall," Bowen said. "Her aunt and uncle live 10 minutes away. She's been a Marshall fan her whole life. We got lucky enough to get her. Her time in the 800 meters breaks our school record, as a high school senior who didn't have an outdoor season. She's done great this season."
The men are led by a trio of sophomores: local products Jacob Birurakis and Brett Armbruster, and Michigan native Evan White.
"The men came into this season a little bit less focused than the women," Bowen said. "They didn't think they'd have a season at all. Once we got approved, they've been on it. They've made such great strides."
Bowen said Birurakis has "been a rock this whole time," and White is "the most talented kid I've worked with in my life." Armbruster was a high school baseball player who has turned into a "cool surprise" for Marshall as a walk-on.
How the Marshall teams will fare is anyone's guess. The sample size is smaller than ever, and some teams haven't competed at all. But Bowen knows how hard his teams will compete, and they could make noise on a course that starts with 700 meters of grass and then transitions to crushed gravel that one would see on the paths around Huntington's Ritter Park.
No matter what, Bowen and his runners will be grateful for the opportunity to compete. Not many teams on campus have had that chance during the coronavirus pandemic that has wreaked havoc on collegiate athletics in 2020.
"We knew this year was going to be hard because teams who haven't competed or competed once, so it's hard to get the data you'd like to see," Bowen said. "So what we want is to be better than the year before."
Chuck McGill is the Assistant Athletic Director for Fan/Donor Engagement and Communications at Marshall University and an eight-time winner of the National Sports Media Association West Virginia Sportswriter of the Year award. In addition to HerdZone.com's Word on the Herd, McGill is the editor of Thundering Herd Illustrated, Marshall's official athletics publication. Follow him on Twitter (@chuckmcgill) and Instagram (wordontheherd).
