The UNC Greensboro (UNCG) men's and women's cross country teams travel to Louisville, Kentucky for their third meet of the season. In preparation for the Louisville Classic on Saturday, we caught up with junior
Michael Zapherson who took us back to his freshman year competing at the event.
"My trip to Louisville freshman year was not a very eventful one but for me, it was very memorable," Zapherson stated. "That year we flew to Kentucky, which I thought was super cool because it felt like my first-ever business trip."
Normally, the team would take the short flight to Kentucky, but this year they are journeying by charter bus turning the trip into a 10-hour ride of team bonding and lots of naps.
The 20
th annual Live in Lou Cross Country Class is held at the E.P. "Tom" Sawyer State Park in Louisville, Kentucky. The men will be running an eight-kilometer race at 9:30 a.m., while the women's race is a five-kilometer course starting at 10:15 a.m.
"The course at Louisville is known for being extremely quick and it definitely lived up to the hype," Zapherson said. "My freshman year I struggled with the worst injury of my life, which I got by stepping in a pothole and dislocating one of my bones which put me out for several weeks. Before the Louisville meet, I had been trying to recover from the injury and only had about two weeks of training under me before I went into the race.
"When I got to the line, we began doing strides and I could feel the discomfort my injury brought me and was worried that it would affect my race. As soon as the gun went off, I darted to try to keep up with one of the seniors on our team,
Alex Roy, and I guess the race adrenaline got to me because I couldn't even remember that I had the injury during the race.
"I ended up flying through the race and with my limited training I was able to run in the low 25's and get second for the team. This pace was significantly faster than what I ran at my first race despite it being over a mile longer."
There are 35 men's teams and 42 women's teams currently predicted to toe the line this weekend.
"The event itself was very crazy. It was by far the biggest race I've ever been to and had one of the most competitive fields I've ever raced, with the lead pack even outpacing the pace vehicle at some points."
Following a third-place team finish at the Elon Opener and a fourth-place mark at the Adidas Cross Country Challenge, the men's squad slid into the U.S. Track & Field Cross Country Coaches Association Southeast Region rankings, holding steady at 15
th for the second week in a row. This is the first ranking for UNCG since 2019.
"UNCG is a very different team than it was two years ago and personally I am a different runner. I think that our team has the capability to be one of the more competitive teams there and really make a name for ourselves after almost a decade of rebuilding."
