Sept. 24, 2008

Memphis, Tenn -

The University of Memphis' men's and women's cross country teams make the trip to Little Rock to compete in the UALR Open on Saturday, Sept. 27. The meet held at Rebsamen Golf Course in Little Rock, Ark. begins at 10:00 a.m. as the men start off the day with an 8k race followed by the women at 11:20 a.m. running a 5k race.

"We expect some really good things this weekend," said Memphis distance coach Toby Reep confidently of the UALR race. "This will have to be a bunch of individuals stepping up and getting the job done, but it's going to be all about each person running faster than they've run before and us as a group pulling together, supporting each other, and really performing well as a team."

Reep decided to hold the team out of the Commodore Classic last weekend in order to give the Tigers some much needed rest and recuperation time. Look for both the men's and women's teams to show much improvement and turn in lower the times than the two previous meets.

"We had a week of recovery and we came back this week and we had a really great week of workouts," said Reep on the team's workout regime. "Our legs are starting to spring back a little bit from all the heavy work we've been doing. That week off for us was so crucial because we had pressed so hard to get ourselves physically back to where we needed to be."

The Tigers' cross country teams have two more meets before the C-USA Championships. The Watson Ford Invitational at Mississippi College in Clinton, Miss. takes place the morning of Oct. 11 and the Redhawk Classic is run in Cape Girardeau, Mo. on Oct. 17. The C-USA Championship is held on the cross country course at Mike Rose Soccer Complex in Memphis, Tenn on the morning of Nov. 1.