Defending GCAC champs announce '08 cross country schedules
August 6, 2008

NEW ORLEANS — A trip to nearby City Park in late August will begin the Xavier University of Louisiana men's and women's cross country schedules for 2008.

Coach Joseph Moses announced the schedules Wednesday.

The Gold Rush and Gold Nuggets, both two-time defending Gulf Coast Athletic Conference champions, will open their seasons in the Tulane Green Wave Invitational on Friday, Aug. 29. The meet — which consists of a women's two-mile run at 6 p.m. and a men's 5,000-meter run at 6:30 — will be Xavier's only competition in New Orleans this season. Xavier's men won the Tulane meet in 2007.

Xavier then will compete out-of-state five times in its next six meets in preparation for the postseason — the GCAC Championship at Clinton, Miss., on Nov. 8 and the NAIA National Championships at Kenosha, Wis., on Nov. 22. There is no Region XIII meet this season, which means the GCAC team champions will qualify automatically for the national championships for the first time since 2000.

The only other Louisiana meet for Xavier will be the Southern University Invitational at Baton Rouge on Sept. 13. Out-of-state trips will include meets in Texas, Alabama, Florida and Tennessee. If the past three seasons are indicative, about a third of Xavier's opponents will be NCAA Division I members.

Xavier will return six All-GCAC runners — Ashley Broden, Ebony Harding and Stacey Windon on the women's team, Joe Drexler-Dreis, David Salmon and Darren Wallace on the men's — from the 2007 season. Also back for the Rush is Bryan Khan, who was All-GCAC in 2006. Harding is a two-time second-team All-Region XIII runner and was the GCAC women's runner-up in 2006 and 2007. Salmon was the men's Freshman of the Year on the 2007 All-Louisiana team. Moses was the men's and women's GCAC Coach of the Year in 2006 and 2007 and this past season became the first to be voted Coach of the Year consecutive times on the All-Louisiana men's team.

Xavier's Office of Campus Activities will sponsor a pep rally for the cross country teams at noon on Thursday, Aug. 28 — the day before the Tulane meet — outside the University Center.