A week after sweeping the season-opening Western Carolina Cross Country Festival, the Bulldog teams will welcome squads to the UGA Golf Course today for the Bulldog Southeastern Conference Preview.
The Georgia men will run an 8000-meter course at 8:30 a.m. and the Lady Bulldogs will follow at 9:15 a.m. with a 6000m race. The Bulldogs will host Texas A&M, Auburn, Tennessee, LSU, South Carolina and Georgia Tech. This will be the first of two meets for Georgia at the UGA Golf Course as the program will also welcome the league teams for the SEC Championships on Friday, Oct. 27.
Admission is free to the Bulldog SEC Preview and parking will be available at the UGA Golf Course. The first 100 fans to the meet will be treated to free donuts and juice at the UGA Promotions table.
This marks the first time since 2007 that Georgia has run its home meet at the golf course. That year, the Lady Bulldogs won the Bulldog Stampede and the Georgia men were second at the meet. Following a Georgia sweep over the Yellow Jackets at the UGA Intramural Fields in 2008, the Bulldogs have hosted all of their meets at the UGA Equestrian Complex from 2009 through 2016.
“Last week’s race hopefully knocked the rust off and now we can begin to see where we stack up in the conference,” said Patrick Cunniff, who is starting his sixth year leading his alma mater’s distance program. “Our teams are excited to run in Athens at a location where their friends and families can make it out. We appreciate the crew at the UGA Golf Course for working with us to make this meet happen. This is a challenging course and I am looking forward to seeing where our kids are with SECs coming at this same course in a month and a half or so.”
Georgia opened its 2017 season at the WCU Festival last weekend and left with a pair of team wins and two individual victories. The Bulldog men scored a perfect 15 and had the race’s eight of the top 10 finishers. Senior Bryan Kamau won his second collegiate race and led Georgia for the seventh consecutive time with a 5000m time of 15:29.07. Also of note, redshirt freshman Michael Hans was fourth overall during his first time in the red and black and earned SEC Freshman of the Week honors.
The Lady Bulldogs scored 17 points thanks to six finishers in the top 10. Sophomore Jessica Drop was named the SEC Runner of the Week after winning her second collegiate meet with a 3200m time of 10:40.12. Her twin sister Sam helped pace Georgia with a second-place finish (10:44.45) in Cullowhee, N.C.
Saturday’s meet is the second of five regular season meets for the Bulldogs. After this weekend, Georgia will train until a trip to Bethlehem, Pa., for the Paul Short Run on Sept. 29.
UGA also has the Gene Mullin Invitational (Greenville, S.C. – Furman) and the NCAA Pre-Nationals (Louisville, Ky. – Oct. 14) during the regular season. Following SECs in Athens, the Bulldogs will race at the NCAA South Regional in Tuscaloosa, Ala., on Nov. 10 and then prepare for the NCAA Championships in Louisville on Nov. 18.