The Oxford Eagles men's and women's teams represented very well at the NJCAA National Championships.
The men came into nationals not ranked in the top 10. Coach Ella stated, "Our goal coming in was to fight for top 3 our second year at nationals. We had 4 guys run 28 to 29 mins. One of our guys took a bad spill who was on pace to run 29. He managed to get back up and finish at 31:27. At this level a slight change can make a world of a difference. But we walked away top 10; I am over the moon!"
The women pulled an upset with running personal bests and finishing second overall. Coach T said, "We faced so many obstacles this season with our ladies. We had one of our top freshmen roll her ankle during our season opener. We had to cross train her for most of the remaining season. One of our ladies developed a strange injury in her leg mid-season and was switched to pool workouts and put in a boot up until race day. Another athlete contracted the hand, foot & mouth disease from her younger sister that caused her to develop fevers and loss of skin on her feet. We had to rest her and get her well. Lastly, one of our girls caught the flu last Wednesday so we needed to rest her. We pretty much trained each of them for mental toughness and they bought into the plan. Here we are, second in the nation!"
Both coaches also stated that they are looking forward to next season. This is only their second year varsity, and second year at nationals, with a full squad for both programs. It looks like Oxford College of Emory can look forward to continual representation of two more programs at the national level.
As the Oxford Eagles men's and women's cross country teams end their season, we take a look back at their amazing quest to establish our brand as a national household name in athletics as well as academics. Every year both of these programs have continued to set school history and program records. This year they have broken several individual records and finished at the highest level in our short history. 2018 is looking very bright for the Eagles!