ELON, N.C. – The 2024 campaign for the Elon University men's and women's cross country program is slated to begin at its annual home opener, the Elon Opener, on Friday night, Sept. 6, on the program's cross country course on campus.
 
The races begin with the women's 4K at 8:15 p.m. followed by the men's 6K at approximately 8:45 p.m.
 
LIVE COVERAGE
• Live results will be provided and can be found on the Elon cross country schedule page at elonphoenix.com.
 
TEAMS IN COMPETITION
• Along with Elon, the rest of the teams in competition at this Friday's meet include Averett, Charlotte, Davidson, Fayetteville State, Guilford, Mount Olive, North Carolina A&T, Shaw and USC Aiken.
 
RINKER FILE
• Elon begins the season with a new coach at the helm in Mark Rinker, who arrives after spending the past four seasons as an assistant track coach and head cross country coach at Eastern Michigan.
• During his time at EMU, Rinker helped the Eagles to five total team conference titles including four indoor MAC championships and the 2021 Cross Country title for the EMU men.
• Additionally, Rinker has coached 19 individual MAC champions, 38 All-MAC selections, two NCAA Cross Country Championship qualifiers and one NCAA All-American in track. He was named the 2021 MAC Cross Country Coach of the Year and is a three-time MAC Indoor Assistant Coach of the Year while earning MAC Outdoor Assistant Coach of the Year laurels in 2023.
• Assistant coach Christian Hubaker joins Rinker on the coaching staff this season. Hubaker spent time with Rinker as an assistant coach at Eastern Michigan this past season, helping coach three individual MAC champions in the mile, 800 and 3,000 meters along with three individual runner-up finishers in the 5K and the 10K.
 
ELON WOMEN'S 2024 PREVIEW
• The five-time defending CAA Cross Country champions welcomes back 17 harriers from its squad a year ago including two runners that finished in the top-seven of Elon finishers at the league championships last fall.
• Junior Katie Blount is Elon's top returner after earning a top-10 standing at the CAA Championships to earn All-CAA accolades for the second consecutive season. The Atlanta, Ga., native also ran the second-fastest time in school history last season in the 5K at a time of 17:06.9 at the Virginia Invitational.
• Graduate student Madison Synowiec also returns after just missing out on receiving All-CAA honors for the second straight year. The Salisbury, Md., native is the top returning runner for the Phoenix from the NCAA Southeast Regionals after coming in 64^th overall. Synowiec also broke into the program's top-10 performance list in the 5K last season with her personal-best time of 17:24.4 at the Virginia Invitational.
• Elon brings in 12 newcomers on the women's side including a pair of transfers in Mikayla Jones and Mariana Martinez. Jones competed at Catawba College from 2021-24 where she was named the 2023 Region Runner of the Year while being named to the 2023 All-SAC First Team. Martinez arrives after spending time as a member of the TCU women's cross country and track and field program and ranks in TCU's All-Time top 10 list in the Indoor DMR (No. 4, 11:47.81), outdoor 3,000-meters (No. 3, 9:43.73) and the 10,000-meters (No. 6, 36:18.26).
 
ELON MEN'S 2024 PREVIEW
• The Elon men's roster returns 12 letterwinners from its squad a season ago including its top six runners from last year's CAA championship meet.
• Redshirt sophomore Evan Taylor was the Phoenix's top runner for the majority of last season. The Milton, Ontario, native was 18^th overall at the CAA Championships and posted the third-fastest 10K time in school history at 31:08.5 at the NCAA Southeast Regional meet.
• Senior Daniel King also broke into the program's top-10 performance list in the 10K, running a personal-best time of 32:11.2 at the Southeast Regionals last season.
 
UP NEXT
• The Phoenix will travel to the adidas XC Challenge for its next meet on Friday, Sept. 20 hosted by NC State.