Interview with Alex Smolka

Oct. 3, 2006

BOCA RATON,FL - The Florida Atlantic University men's and women's cross country teams will travel to Orlando to take part in the Disney World Invitational on Saturday.

The Owls will look to feed off of their success at the FLRunners.com Invitational in which the women took the team title and the men finished second. The women were helped by the efforts of junior Trisha Doyle and freshman Friederike Feil who finished 1-2 and helped FAU win the meet by more than 60 points. Although those two finished at the top, it was a total team effort as the Owls placed four runners in the top seven finshers.

"It was a night meet, so for our women to win after traveling all day is huge for us," head cross country coach Alex Smolka said.

The men took their highest team finish of the season, and it was a group effort at well. The Owls, led by junior Earl Barlow's 9th placed finish, put three runners in the top 10 and five in the top 20. The men finished more than 40 points in front of third place Bethune-Cookman.

"The men are getting more confidence and more experience, that's really going to be important as we get closer to the conference championships," said Smolka.

The collegiate men's race starts at 7:45 a.m., followed by the women's race at 8:55 a.m.