#TCCWXC runs for Region Championship Friday morning

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (November 3, 2016) – The inaugural season of women's cross country at Tallahassee Community College has reached its apex – three postseason events over the next 16 days, beginning with Friday's NJCAA Region 8/FCSAA State Cross Country Championship at Apalachee Regional Park. 

Friday's race will begin at 9 a.m. 

Tallahassee will joined on the course by Chipola College, Pasco-Hernando State College and South Florida State College. 

Friday will mark the first time Tallahassee and South Florida State have run in the same event. The Eagles have been matched up with Chipola on three occasions, most recently at the FSU Invitational on October 7, and raced against Pasco-Hernando State in the season-opening Cougar XC Invite at Phipps Park. 

Head coach Gary Droze says there's more to Friday's race, however, than running against the Eagles' rivals. 

"Outcomes in cross country are more predictable than in other team sports, because there are fewer variables," said Droze. "Runners battle the course and their own limitations more than they do rival athletes. That said, the team is highly motivated and a solid finish and personal bests are what we aim to achieve (on Friday)." 

Samantha Reilly has been the top finisher for the Eagles in each event thus far and enters Friday looking to better her time of 20:51.7 on the same course last month. 

Regardless of how the Eagles finish on Friday, they will send their top seven runners to next weekend's NJCAA Division I Cross Country Championship in El Dorado, Kan. The event, scheduled for Saturday, November 12, is hosted by Butler (Kan.) Community College. 

The following Saturday, November 19, the Eagles will send a five-person squad to Orange Beach, Ala., for the NJCAA Half Marathon Championship.