Big weekend ahead for GC&SU teams

Cross Country

The GC&SU cross country teams return to action Saturday, Sept. 28 at the Pre-Conference meet hosted by Francis Marion University in Florence, S.C.

“I want my runners to run to their potential,” said Head Bobcat Cross Country Coach Joseph Samprone. “You can’t play defense with cross country. All you can do is run as well as you can. Runners know what they are capable of. They each know what their personal records are.”

The last two meets have been a real challenge for the Bobcat runners. The first meet at Berry College proved to be a literal up hill battle. The hilly course proved difficult, but rewarding.

The second meet at Alabama Huntsville University proved beneficial to a handful of the Bobcat runners. Bethany Loushine broke her own school record in the 6k event. J.R. Black ran the fourth fastest time ever in school history in the men’s 10k event.

For the new runners, the courses in the first two meets were like a trial by fire. The next courses on the cross country calendar will not be as long. The women’s event will be a 5K, while the men will run an 8K.

“This is the first time that the men’s team is running an 8k and the women’s team is running a 5k which the normal conference distance,” said Samprone. “We ran longer in the first two meets because we wanted to do something a little more difficult. If they’re confident that they can run the longer distances, then they can really let it go when their running the shorter distances. I want everyone to finish without having to worry about distance.”

Most of the Peach Belt Conference schools will compete in the event as a warm-up for the Peach Belt Conference Championships, which will be held on Saturday, Oct. 26.

Golf

The Georgia College & State University’s golf team will be looking to improve their luck in the G. Gundy Jordan Invitational Tournament.
Columbus State University will host the event on Sept. 29 through Oct. 1.

“This team is going to be good,” said Head Coach Jimmy Wilson. “Whether this week or next week or next month this team is going to be good, there is too much talent on this team for them not to be good.”

The Bobcat Golf team was ranked 13th in the nation according to the Precept/GCAA Men’s Golf Fall Rankings. GC&SU returns nine golfers from last year’s team, which advanced to the NCAA Division II Regional Tournament for the fifth consecutive year.

“I don’t know what the line-up for this tournament is going to be,” said Wilson. “During the fall the line-up is going to change, it’s going to be juggled some. I’m going to give as many people a chance to play as I can. We’ll see whose going to step forward and be in the top five.”

Florida Southern University and Rollins College share the top spot in the poll, followed by California State University at Stanislaus in third place. GC&SU is one of six Peach Belt Conference schools ranked in the top twenty. University of Southern Carolina at Aiken is ranked forth in the poll, while Kennesaw State University is ninth and Francis Marion University is 10th. Armstrong Atlantic State University and Columbus State University rank 18th and 19th respectively.

“There’s going to be fifteen other teams at the tournament,” said Wilson. “All of them are quality teams.”

GC&SU joins 16 schools who will participate in the annual tournament. Among the teams competing are teams from the Peach Belt Conference and some NCAA Division I schools.

Tennis

The Georgia College & State University Men’s Tennis Team will take a swing at teams in and out of the Peach Belt Conference on Friday, Sept. 27.

The GC&SU Men’s Fall Tennis Championships will be held Friday through Sunday at the Centennial Center Tennis Facility here at GC&SU.

“We’ll do a lot better than we did in this tournament last year,” said
Head Bobcat Tennis Coach Steve Barsby. “We’re playing better right now. We’re playing better doubles. Hopefully, we’ll gel this weekend, and it will be a stepping stone towards the regional tournament the following weekend.”

Players from several schools around the southeast will compete in the second annual event.

“Columbus is probably the best team coming in here based on last year,” said Barsby. “We beat them last year during the conference tournament, but they beat us during the regular season. We’re probably a little better, but they’ve improved from last year.”

Like all fall matches, this will be an individual tournament, with champions crowned in several flights for singles and doubles. The players will compete in a bracket format.

This tournament allows Barsby to see what he hasn’t seen in practice.

“I’m pretty optimistic about this weekend,” said Barsby. “If we play well then we can win every flight. It puts the guys under the gun to see how they’ll do in a tournament.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 27 2002. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry