Full Schedule
TAMPA - Head Coach Warren Bye and the University of South Florida cross country program announced their 2010 schedule Friday, as a jam-packed calendar awaits the Bulls in the Fall.
USF will run six meets in seven weeks leading up to the all-important BIG EAST Championships at the end of October. The Bulls will stay in-state for three of those meets and head north to Pennsylvania and New York for the other three.
USF will head back to New York for the BIG EAST Championships and stay in Florida for the NCAA South Regional.
"We have an extremely competitive schedule that will prepare us for BIG EAST and NCAA Regionals," said assistant coach Dena Reif. "At every meet this year we will face multiple top-ranked teams within our conference and the nation."
The Bulls get their season underway Sept. 11 when the team travels to the site of the 2010 BIG EAST Championships to compete at the Syracuse Invitational. That trip will be followed up a week later with the Florida Invitational Sept. 18 in Gainesville, the fifth year in a row the Bulls have competed at the meet.
The Bulls will use an open week on the schedule to prepare for one of the biggest races around, the Paul Short Invitational Oct. 1 at Lehigh in Bethlehem, Pa. Last year's race featured three different divisions with more than 30 teams in each division. This year will mark the third-straight year the Bulls have competed at the invitational.
The back-and-forth travel continues as the Bulls trek to Tallahassee for the Florida State Invitational Oct. 9, the site of the NCAA South Regional. A week later, the Bulls head back to the Keystone State for the Penn State Invitational Oct. 16.
"We will also get the opportunity to race the BIG EAST and the NCAA Regional courses this year prior to the championships, which is a great advantage to our athletes," said Reif.
One last tune-up for the BIG EAST meet will take place Oct. 23 with the Florida Southern Invitational just up I-4 in Lakeland, Fla. The Bulls then head back to Syracuse for the BIG EAST Championships Oct. 30.
Another week off separates the BIG EAST meet from the NCAA Regionals, as the top seven men and women for USF will go back to another familiar location, Tallahassee, for the South Regional Nov. 13. The women finished 12th at the meet last season held in Tuscaloosa, Ala., while the men took 19th.
A strong showing there will catapult the Bulls to the NCAA Championships Nov. 22 at Terre Haute, Ind.
USF returns seven of its top nine runners from the men's side for 2010 and all but a couple runners from the women's team. A total of 15 of the 18 runners who competed at the 2009 BIG EAST meet for both teams will be back for 2010.
Last season the women finished 12th at the BIG EAST Championships and 13th on the men's side. The BIG EAST had five men's teams ranked in the top 30 at the end of the season and six women's teams.
