ELON, N.C. – The Elon University men's and women's cross country programs will split for a pair of meets this Friday, Sept. 16. The majority of the teams will compete at the NC State-hosted adidas XC Challenge while select groups will race at the Coaching Tree Invitational at Indiana University.
 
The Coaching Tree Invitational is scheduled for a 10 a.m. start for the women's 6K and a 10:45 start for the men's 8K at the Sam Bell Cross Country Course. The adidas XC challenge begins at 5:40 p.m. for the men's 6K and at 6:20 p.m. for the women's 5K race at the WakeMed Cross Country Course.
 
LIVE COVERAGE
• Live results for both races will be provided and can be found on the Elon cross country schedule page at elonphoenix.com.
 
PHOENIX IN COMPETITION
• The group scheduled to compete at the Coaching Tree Invitational includes Katie Blount, Leandra Lorenz, Maggie Springer, Madison Synowiec, Anna Twomey and Jasmine Young.
• Scheduled athletes to race at the adidas XC Challenge; Braden Anthes, Cameron Dunn, Ramy Ghandour, Garrison Gilbert, Zane Jackson, Michael Koenig, Daniel King, Nate Mars, Tamer Metwalli, Andrew Miller, Colby Robbins and Caden Strickland for the men.
• The Phoenix women lining up at the adidas XC Challenge; Jette Beermann, Julia Bell, Kaitlyn Garofalo, Taylor Haerbig, Hannah Miller, Braetan Peters, Sarah Petitjean, Bailey Reutinger, Alice Roberts and Sydney Swan.
 
COACH JERMYN ON IU'S RON HELMER
• The Coaching Tree Invitational will have special meaning to Phoenix head cross country coach Kevin Jermyn as the meet will be a tribute to the coaching career of Indiana's head coach Ron Helmer. Helmer is coaching his final season with the Hoosiers in 2022-23.
• All teams traveling to the meet are coached by people who either ran or worked for Helmer during his 50-plus-year career.
• Jermyn competed under Helmer as a student-athlete at Georgetown and helped the Hoyas to numerous BIG EAST and IC4A team championships and NCAA Championship appearances. Individually, Jermyn was an All-America, All-East and All-BIG EAST selection in track and field under Helmer's tutelage.
 
LAST TIME OUT
• The Phoenix opened its 2022 campaign at its annual home meet, the Elon Invitational, on Sept. 2, at the Elon Cross Country Course.
• The Phoenix women took the team title at the meet, scoring 25 points to beat out in-state rival Duke. The maroon and gold female harriers also swept the podium in the 4K race as Leandra Lorenz, Maggie Springer and Madison Synowiec all went 1-2-3, respectively.
• Lorenz took the individual title as the redshirt junior ran a time of 13:22.3 in the 4K race, just beating out her teammate Springer, who clocked a time of 13:25.6. For her efforts, Lorenz was later named the Colonial Athletic Association's Women's Runner of the Week on Sept. 6.
• In the men's 6K, Elon came in second to the Blue Devils, scoring 54 total points compared to 17 for Duke. Zane Jackson was the Phoenix's leader in the race as the junior clocked a time of 18:35.8 for a top-10 finish.
 
UP NEXT
• Elon closes out the month with a trip to Lehigh University for the Paul Short Run on Sept. 30.