Oct. 31, 2008

KENNESAW, Ga. - With their regular season in the rear view mirror, the Owls will head to Macon, Ga., tomorrow, November 1, to compete in their final meet of the year, the Atlantic Sun Conference Championships.

Since entering the A-Sun in 2005, the Owls have finished in the top four in the conference all three seasons. To win tomorrow, they will have to dethrone a Belmont team that has won the last six conference titles.

The meet will take place on the same course that the RunFit Invitational was held on September 27, a race in which the Owls placed fourth.

The Owls will rely heavily on Senior Scott Burley tomorrow, as they have all season. Burley placed third in the conference championships in 2006, before red-shirting in 2007. He picked up right where he left off this season, leading the Owls throughout, racking up two A-Sun Runner of the Week awards in the process. Burley also holds the fastest 8k time of the season on the Owls, finishing the Walt Disney World Cross Country Classic with a time of 25:44.80.

Sophomores Piotr Witczak and Steven Murray have also had strong seasons for the Owls. Murray holds the second fastest 8k time on the Owls this season, finishing the RunFit Invitational with a time of 26:07. Witczak was close behind with a time of 26:17.

"Burley, Murray, and Witczak have been running great," Head Coach Stan Sims said. "However, in addition, we are going to need big runs from Travis Holmes, Jaakko Nieminen and Max Ndungu if we are going to win.

"Belmont and ETSU are strong teams but if I didn't believe in upsets, then wouldn't be in this business."

The Owls have been consistently improving their times all season, in anticipation of tomorrow's meet. On October 18, in their final regular season meet, Burley, Witczak, Murray, Holmes, and Nieminen all finished with their best 5k times of the year, evidence of the team's improvement.

"All the guys are ready to run tomorrow," Murray said. "We've been planning for this day all season. We are all in the best shape of our lives.

"I really like the attitude that everyone on the team has going into conference. I think that we have a real shot at an upset and winning. We just have to go out there an execute the race and see what happens."

The men's race is set to begin at 10:00 a.m., to be followed with an awards ceremony at 11:00.