Florida A&M’s Lady Rattlers cross country team continues its hunt for a championship on Friday at the Florida State Cross Country Invitational. The meet will be held at the Mike Long track in Tallahassee.
The cross-town trip will be the team’s first meet since its back-to-back wins at Albany State and the Bethune-Cookman Invitational.
Headlined by transfer student Nadine Mulvany and sophomore Chandelic Jackson, the ladies will look to use the meet to tune up for the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference finals.
Among the competing teams will be Auburn University, FSU, Webber College, Florida Southern University, West Florida, and Troy University.
Head coach Darlene Moore has been pushing the athletes to meet and surpass their personal best times. The extra preparation time has enhanced the focus of the team. It also has helped stress the value of the meet.
“We have worked very hard these last two weeks, and my ladies are ready for the challenge,” Moore said. “This is a very important race.”
The Seminoles, coached by Karen Harvey, are ranked No. 6 in the nation and are legitimate contenders for the national title. That hasn’t swayed Harvey from placing her top runners in the meet.
“We are going to run everybody, race everybody, some of our top runners will just do this meet as a workout,” coach Harvey said on Seminoles.com.
The meet will be used as a measuring stick of the Rattlers’ progress at this point in the season. According to Moore, the course is very fast and should provide insight about the runners moving forward in the season.
“I’m looking for the girls’ performance in Friday’s meet to give me a snap-shot of how they can perform in the championship,” Moore said.
The meet, which begins at 6 p.m., is the final contest before the Bobby Lang Invitational on Oct. 1.