Cross Country Kicks Off 2015

CLEMSON S.C. – On Friday, the cross country program will travel 15 men and 15 women to the Winthrop Challenge in Rock Hill, SC., for its first meet of the season. The Tigers will compete against Coastal Carolina, College of Charleston, Davidson, Gardner-Webb, Presbyterian, UNC Asheville, USC Upstate and Winthrop in a dual meet scoring format. The women begin their 4K race at 5:45 p.m., and the men follow with a 5K at 6:15 p.m.

However, Michael Porter is more focused in seeing how his team competes after they workout prior to the race.

“This weekend I’m excited for the student-athletes to get into uniform and show the hard work that they’ve done this summer,” Coach Porter said. “The goal for this weekend is to get a good, hard effort out of the student-athletes and come away healthy with a better understanding of what we need to do to get better.”

Clemson graduated key performers, Natoya Goule and Aaron Ramirez but returns the rest of its top performers from last season while welcoming a total of 11 freshmen to the program in 2015.

“With seven new men and four new women on the rosters we’ll be able to begin figuring out what kind of team we are going to have this year,” Porter said. “This weekend is about learning how to execute a race plan, making mistakes and getting better.”