Eagles to host XC season opener
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (August 27, 2021) – Tallahassee Community College's 2021-22 athletics season gets underway Saturday morning when the Eagles host the TCC XC Open at Apalachee Regional Park.
The men's 8K race will run at 8 a.m. followed by the women's 5K at 9 a.m.
Head coach Gary Droze returns for a sixth season at the helm of the Eagle harriers.
Men's Preview
Hands down, this is Tallahassee's deepest squad since launching the men's team in 2017.
Second-year runners Bryce Bass (Tallahassee, Fla./Leon HS) and Shawn Marcum (Tallahassee, Fla./Chiles HS) helped the Eagles earn their first national ranking in 2020. The season ended with an 11th-place finish at the NJCAA Division II Cross Country Championships in Fort Dodge, Iowa. Eligibility-wise, both are running as freshmen after the NJCAA waived a year of participation for all sports in 2020-21 due to COVID-19.
They will be joined by a talented quintet of true freshmen, four of which placed inside the top 22 at last season's FHSAA Championships.
Bartram Trail High School graduate Jahari White (Saint John, Fla.) finished seventh in the Class 4A final last season while twin brother Jalani placed 20th.
Ryan Sloan (Shalimar, Fla.), who prepped at Fort Walton Beach High School, crossed the line 22nd in the Class 3A final while Maclay School's Leo Rutledge took home eighth place in the Class 1A final.
Rounding out the freshman crop is Lincoln High School's Khary Wright.
Saturday will mark the Eagles' first of three events scheduled for the ARP. They'll return on October 15 for the annual FSU Invitational then two weeks later for the FCSAA State/NJCAA Region 8 Championships.
The 2022 NJCAA Championships will be held in Richmond, Va., November 13 followed by the Half Marathon on November 16.
Women's Preview
Droze doesn't expect the full women's roster to be in the starting box until the FSU Invitational, but Tallahassee will be represented on Saturday.
Freshman Arielle Valdes (Fort Myers, Fla.) has emerged as a legitimate number one runner. Behind her are former Fort Walton Beach teammates Raeven Byrd (Mary Esther, Fla.) and Fatima Morris (Mary Esther, Fla.).
Internal recruiting efforts as TCC's fall semester got underway yielded two additional runners – freshmen Tommie Marrs (Hulbert, Okla.) and Elisandra Santana (Santo Domingo, St. Maarten).
Tallahassee Community College would like to thank Leon County and Visit Tallahassee for its support of the TCC XC Open.