Sept. 9, 2005

Columbia, S.C. – The South Carolina cross-country squad heads to Clemson on Saturday to take on the Tigers, along with 10 other squads, beginning at 8:30 a.m. The Gamecocks head to Clemson looking to avenge a loss to their archrivals in last weekend’s Gamecock Invitational in Columbia, and with an eye on reclaiming the South Carolina Collegiate Championship, which the Tigers took home in 2004.

“Our two main goals are to improve our times from last week and improve the time gap between our number one runner (19:04) and our number five runner (19:54),” said cross country coach Stan Rosenthal.

The other schools in the meet include: South Carolina State, Furman, Charlotte, Gardner-Webb, Wofford, UNC-Asheville, along with Southeastern Conference rival, No. 22 Georgia.

“UGA, who is ranked third in the SEC, will be there,” said Rosenthal. “They will be a good test to see how we stack up against one of the best schools in the SEC.”

USC took home second place in last Friday’s Gamecock Invitational at Owens Field, coming just two points shy of defeating Clemson. In 2004, Carolina fell to the Tigers in the Gamecock Invitational and claimed victory over their in-state rivals the following week in the return leg at Clemson. A total of 12 Gamecock runners finished in the Top 50 at last year’s Clemson Invitational, with sophomore Rebecca Chain leading all returners with a 17th place finish a year ago. Chain, a native of Ridgefield, Conn., picked up a third place finish at the Gamecock Invitational last Friday.

The Gamecocks follow up the Clemson meet with a trip to the Winthrop Invitational in Rock Hill, S.C., next Saturday, September 17.