Richmond Women's Cross Country Prepares For NC State Wolfpack Invitational

The Spider Women will compete at NC State tomorrow...

...while the Men will open their season in two weeks at the Paul Short Run in PA...

Amy Van Alstine will open her season with her

Richmond teammates tomorrow

against NC State. Van Alstine qualified for the

2010 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships

running the 5,000M in the first round.

Freshman, Jill Prentice set a meet and course record

at the Spider Alumni Open in her first meet as a Spider.

Women's Cross Country Prepares For Wolfpack Invitational

The women's team travels to N.C. for their first appearance since the Spider Alumni Open.

Julie Rechel had a great summer of training

after qualifying for the first round of the

2010 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships

in the 10,000M last spring.

Sept. 15, 2010

By KC Rismiller-UR SID

UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND - The women's cross country team travels to Cary, N.C. this week to participate in the 17th Annual Wolfpack Invitational hosted by NC State. The women's 5K race is scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m. on Friday.

"We are looking forward to having our team together for the first time this season," said women's head coach Lori Taylor. "Our staff is particularly interested in how our athletes race as a team. We need to continue to build upon the progression we've seen in the first 4 weeks of the season."

Nicol Traynor holds school records in the

5,000M (16:17.64) and 3K Steeple (10:28.46) and

qualified for the 2009 NCAA National Championships

in the 5,000M in Fayetteville, AR.

The Spiders have not competed since the Alumni Open on Sept. 4 when the women's team beat William & Mary (16-46) claiming the top 4 spots in the race. In her first collegiate competition, Jill Prentice (see top of page) captured first-place in the women's 2-mile run with a time of 10:57.30. In addition to the win, Prentice broke both the course and meet records set in 2007 by Kylee Schuler (11:03.10).

Jenn Ennis enters her senior year
as one of the team captains for the Spiders.

This will be Richmond's first appearance at the Woldpack Invitational, and they are expected to compete against NC State University, East Carolina University, Barton College, St. Augustine's College and several others. The race will be held at the WakeMed Soccer Park Cross Country Course and kicks off at 5:30 p.m.

Stay tuned to RichmondSpiders.com for a complete report of Friday's meet.

For more in-depth coverage on the race and the women's Wolfpack experience, visit Coach Taylor's blog, or follow him on Twitter.

Dana Guglielmo, shown here in the 3K steeple

at the 1st round of the

2010 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships,

joins her Spider teammates tomorrow at NC State.