'Rising Phoenix' is a student-led initiative to cover Elon Athletics. Through innovative content creation and storytelling, Elon University students will have the opportunity to highlight the moments, people and events that make an impact, leveraging the athletic department's various web and social media platforms for distribution. Follow Rising Phoenix on X (@EURisingPhoenix) and Instagram (@elonrisingphoenix). Interested in joining this initiative as a content creator (video, graphics, writing, storytelling, or more)? Contact Sydney Spencer at sspencer9@elon.edu.
ELON – The lights shined bright Friday night at the Elon Opener, both on the course and in the runners who took center stage for the men's and women's cross country teams' 2025 debut.
"It's always fun for the first meet of the season to come out under the lights," men's senior
Caden Strickland said. "We always have a big crowd show up. Personally, I kind of feed off of that energy. It's our only home meet of the year, so we've got to take advantage of it and have a good time."
The Phoenix did just that. The first-place women's team dominated the 4K, which saw seven Phoenix place in the top 15. Leading her team was junior
Abby Beville, who took first overall with a personal-best time of 13:36.6. Beville was named CAA Co-Runner of the Week on Monday afternoon following her standout effort.
Beville started the race off in the lead group before seizing control of the top spot in the third lap, never looking back on it.
"I was trying not to think of it as a race, more of a hard effort workout," Beville said. "After the first lap, I was feeling really good, so I decided to get up with the leader. I stayed there until about the third lap. I felt like I still had a lot to go, so I gave it a push and I was able to close."
Beville credited her workout group, senior
Sarah Petitjean and junior
Quinn Smith, who ran alongside her, finishing in fourth and ninth place, respectively. She said being able to run with them, both in workouts and on the course, constantly motivates her.
"We have such a great dynamic," Beville said. "I never feel like I'm racing either of them. We're always happy for each other, whoever comes out on top. Being able to workout with them is just such a great experience. We all have the exact same paces in workouts and it's so much fun for us to be able to do this together."
On the men's side, Strickland led the Phoenix in the 6K with a 13th place individual finish, crossing the line in 18:47.2. He went out fast and put himself at the front of the race, maintaining his pace when others who went out too fast faltered.
"The end goal of this season is not at the Elon Opener," Strickland said. "It's my goal this season to be a top-10, top-5 guy in the conference. This is just a step along the way."
Following Strickland were freshmen
Luke Chisum, who finished 18th with a time of 18:56.1, and
Max Bixler, who finished 26th with a time of 19:19.0. The team welcomed six freshmen in the offseason, all of whom Strickland said have made an immediate impact on the team.
"This is the strongest group of guys that we've ever had in the time that I've been here," Strickland said. "I'm just really excited for what the future holds for us."
The Phoenix will look to the adidas XC Challenge hosted by NC State in Cary on Sept. 19 for the next event. For Beville, the opener win was only part of the reward.
"To be able to come out here and run this race with my teammates just gives me extra motivation to keep training hard for us this season," Beville said.
