The Kentucky cross country teams travel to nearby Richmond, Ky., Friday to open their 2007 season at the Eastern Kentucky Invitational. The meet is scheduled to begin at 4:30 p.m. ET at the EKU Woodchip Trail. UK will run against border-rival Marshall and host Eastern Kentucky.
The race format for the invitational is non-traditional. The men?s squads will start the meet running the first of two separate 2-mile races, with a 20-minute recovery period in between, resulting in a 4-mile event. The women will begin their competition 15 minutes after the men, running only one length of the course.
?What this is giving us in the early season is a glorified time trial,? said John Mortimer, UK?s first year assistant coach for distance/cross country. ?It?s almost like when football comes in and they have an inner-squad scrimmage. This gives us an opportunity on both the men?s and women?s sides to see how our athletes are stacking up against each other in more of a formal setting. We will use this meet as a measuring stick to see where our strengths and weaknesses are.?
Mortimer comes to the Bluegrass from Boston College where he served five years as the Eagles? distance coach. While at Chestnut Hill, he coached several former athletes who set new school records. The New Hampshire native still runs professionally, finishing seventh at the 2004 U.S. Championships and Olympic Trials. As a student-athlete at the University of Michigan, Mortimer was a seven-time All-America selection in track and cross country, six-time Big Ten Conference Champion and the league?s Athlete of the Year in 1996.
The Wildcats face a strong opening test in their first meet of the season. The host Colonel men’s and women’s cross country teams were selected first and second, respectively, in the 2007 Ohio Valley Conference preseason poll. Meanwhile, the Thundering Herd return young squads on both the men?s and women?s sides with rosters that did not list any seniors last season.
?It is fairly inconsequential how the other teams do on the course,? Mortimer said. ?We are more concerned about how our kids match up and who can handle what level of training. It will show some of our athletes that they didn?t do enough over the summer or it?s going to show that they really put in the work they needed to do.?
Mortimer inherits a women?s squad voted to place fifth in the 2007 SEC Cross Country Preseason Coaches? Poll after an eighth-place finish at last season?s NCAA Southeast Regional. Kentucky is led by juniors Taylor Miller (Owensboro, Ky.) and Andrea Halasek (Georgetown, Ky.) who finished in the top three on the team in each of their meets last season. Fellow juniors and twin sisters, Jenna and Jessica Ortman (Williamsville, N.Y.) join the Wildcats as distance veterans after transferring from the University at Albany. Lavera Morris (Orlando, Fla.) returns as the senior leader on the team.
?On the women?s side we have a tight group of returning athletes, with eight girls that have been training stride for stride together,? the first-year UK coach said. ?We have a couple of girls converted from the middle distances. Lavera Morris is our senior leader. Lavera and Taylor Miller, specifically, along with new blood in the form of transfers in the Ortman twins, Jessica and Jenna, have really upped the level of training for the whole group this fall.?
The Wildcat men?s squad is led by senior Andr? Silva (Centereach, N.Y.) who finished in the top two on the team in all of the meets last season, including an overall win at the Cal-Poly Invitational. Upperclassmen Bruce Hordusky (Erie, Pa.) and Chris Long (Bellbrook, Ohio) will look to improve on their times from a year ago and lead a young UK team with nine newcomers. The young Cats must compensate for the loss of senior All-SEC selection John Richardson, who completed his cross country eligibility last fall, but will compete this spring as Kentucky?s mid-distance leader on the track.
?On the men?s side, we have a large number of freshmen,? Mortimer said. ?It?s going to be a fantastic opportunity for us to gauge them in a race situation. We have some good upperclassmen leaders. Bruce Hordusky is doing a great job as a leader out there. Chris Long had a really good summer of training and I think that is showing. We also have a couple of freshmen really putting their mark on the team right now. Eric Schmidt and Adam Henken have really stepped up and have been able to elevate their training and train along with the older guys. For the newcomers this race will be a great way to get them slowly acclimated to college racing.?
Final results and a complete release on Friday?s meet will be available at ukathletics.com.
