Interview With Coach Smolka

Nov. 7, 2006

BOCA RATON, FL - The Florida Atlantic University men's and women's cross country teams will travel to Knoxville, TN to compete in the NCAA South Regional.

The women head to Knoxville after coming off of a 3rd place finish at the Sun Belt Championships. Trisha Doyle and Friederike Feil once again led the way, finishing third and eighth, respectively in the individual competition. Doyle and Feil have been FAU's top runners all season and are expected to continue that trend at Regionals.

"For the women's team, we want to improve on our 14th place finish (in regionals) from a couple of years ago. We hope to eventually make it into the top 10 and work our way up from there," head cross country coach Alex Smolka said. "Individually, we would like to have at least a couple of our women be recognized as all-region performers for finishing in the top 25 runners."

The men enter this weekend's meet, seeking to build on their 11th place finish at the Sun Belt Championships. Stephen Dassin and Earl Barlow finished in 45th and 47th place at the conference meet and will be seeking to improve on those finishes this weekend.

"We will be using this trip as a reward for our men for working so hard over the course of the season. It will be a chance to gain experience and also to see what they can expect as they continue to improve," Smolka said.

The meet will be held in Knoxville, TN on Saturday November 11th.