|
XO
Hopes for Hardware at Club Nationals
News Release
CONTACT:
Ross Krempley—Team XO Director
Tel: 541.579.8326
Email: ross@teamxo.com
Mail: P.O. Box 3915
XO
Hopes for Hardware at Club Nationals
Rochester, NY. - 16
November 2005 -- On Thursday, November 17, the men of Team XO will gather at the Portland International Airport to travel together to arguably the most elite team cross country meet in the nation, Club Nationals. XO is reuniting some of last year’s team as well as introducing a few new faces. Paul Kezes and Max King will lead the team once again with Regional runner-up Dan McLean and others figuring in the mix as well.
Kezes, who enters the season after a summer’s worth of high-altitude training as well as an early season personal record for 8k cross country where he won a muddy Willamette Invitational in 23:26 had this to say going into this year’s meet, “I need to go out and run with the lead pack like I did last year. But unlike last year, I don’t need to take the lead so early in the race. If I stay patient, race smart, and stay relaxed, there’s no reason I can’t improve on last year’s sixth place finish. I would love to give myself a shot at taking it if I could.”
Max King, fresh off his win at the Regional Championships in Seattle looks forward to greater competition at the National meet, “It’s always hard to tell what a meet like Nationals is going to be like, it’s different every year. I guess I’ll just go out and run my race and if it’s anything like it was last year then I hope for a top ten finish. At least I’ll be able to run with Paul [Kezes]!”
In his second meet as an XO athlete, Dan McLean looks forward to the opportunity to run at the National Championships, “It is great to run with a team, to enter big meets together and have guys on the same team as you, it’s very motivating,” Said McLean who finished second behind King at the Regional Championships two weeks ago.
Ben Mangrum and Jeremy Tolman, well rested off their fifth and sixth place Regional finishes, will join the team heading to the championship race in Rochester, New York. Also, XO newcomers Eric Logsdon, a 2005 graduate of the University of Oregon, and John Lucas, also a former Duck will carry on the tradition of ex-Oregon grads joining the ranks of Team XO.
Logsdon joins XO after a stellar senior year at Oregon where he earned All-American honors and led Oregon to a Pac-10 Title. During the summer, Logsdon trained regularly and contemplated where he would continue his running career. He has decided that competing with Team XO at nationals would be a great next step for him. “It will be interesting to see how I run,” says Logsdon, “I feel confident with my mileage and my workouts, but this will be my first race of the season. I’d like to get top ten, but you never know with the first race. I really hope to do as well as I can for the team and score as few points as possible!”
Having notched a win at the Portland Marathon in his belt already this fall, John Lucas now joins XO for the National Championships. Portland was Lucas’ first marathon and he clocked a 2:26:28 on a course not known for its speed. He won the race by over six minutes. Ironically, Lucas and Max King have history that dates back to some of their epic cross country battles in the late ’90s when Lucas ran for Eagle Point High School and King ran for rival Crater, both in Oregon. Needless to say, both are glad to be on the same team now!
“After seeing how we did in our first championship meet last year, we feel like a top three finish is a reasonable goal,” explains XO Team Director Ross Krempley, “with our ultimate goal of winning. We’re just excited that we were able to raise the funds necessary to make this trip. Hopefully we’ll be able to perform up to the level we’re capable of and take another step towards earning a sponsorship that would allow us to make these trips without doing so on the shoestring budget we’ve been working off of. But it’s great that even without the lucrative sponsor we are continuing to grow as one of the top track and cross country teams in the nation and elite athletes continue to flock to us.”
The seventh annual USATF National Club Cross Country Championships will be held at Genesee Valley Park in Rochester, New York, on Saturday, November 19. Results will be posted at www.usatf.org as well as www.teamxo.com with meet commentary shortly after the races.
If you haven't had a chance to see the new video, you should...
http://www.teamxo.com/xohome/xo_video.html
Kevin Ullman
800 meter specialist
XO Press Director
|
