ORLANDO – In a typical year, members of the UCF cross country team would be gearing up to represent the Knights as the distance group of the track and field squad. Instead, the Black and Gold opens the cross country season on Saturday with the UCF Invite.
The COVID-19 pandemic, which shortened the 2020 track and field season just as the Knights were transitioning into the outdoor portion of the season. The pandemic also prompted the NCAA, and then the American Athletic Conference, to push its traditional fall sports into the spring.
Instead of racing at meets in the fall, UCF hosted intrasquad competitions. On Saturday, UCF will finally get the chance to line up with teams other than its own.
"I think everyone's super excited to race," redshirt senior Victoria Jung said. "We've all done intrasquad meets here and it's nice to compete against each other. But to finally have other teams out there to race with, it's going to be awesome."
The UCF Invite is a 5K race that features the Knights, South Florida and FGCU. The Black and Gold won the 2019 edition of the UCF Invite and look to repeat on Saturday. Slated for an 11 a.m. start, the women's race will follow an 8K men's race between South Florida, FGCU and Jacksonville at 10 a.m.
UCF assistant coach Bryan Jackson has seen the growth of his team since they arrived on campus in August, and is looking forward to having them on the course this weekend.
"They've gone through all these months of not having what they love doing," Jackson said. "Now I want them to just enjoy it. Just soak in every moment of it. Race with a lot of purpose, race together, and just have a lot of fun."
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