LAKE CHARLES – The McNeese men's and women's cross country teams will begin the 2019 season this Friday with the running of the McNeese Season Opener at the Enos Derbonne Sports Complex.
 
The women will kick off the event at 6 p.m. and run a 3,000-meter path while the men will follow with a 6,000-meter race at 6:30 p.m.
 
The women will be led by their lone senior runner Estela Pena and juniors Marta Lukijaniuk and Alissa Lander.
 
Joining them will be fellow juniors Jessica Fox, Halie Gilroy, Jaclyn Gonzalez, Priscilla Ibarra; sophomore Sophie Grabner; and freshman Bailey Fruge, Ciara Gilroy, Holly Roberts, and Reagan Rose all making their Cowgirl debut.
 
On the men's side, they will lean on their experienced juniors and underclassmen as there are no seniors on this year's squad. Those juniors being Brain Flanagan, Luke Horgan, Henry Kiplagat, Damian O'Boyle, and Daniel Saina.
 
Joining them will be sophomores Miguel Barrera-Lopez, Joey Croft, William Devaney, Aaron Gilliam, William Griffiths, and Markus Kopp; as well as freshmen Hayden Foolkes and Jacob Darbonne making their Cowboy debut at the event.
 
Squads from LSU, Southeastern Louisiana, and Louisiana College will be joining McNeese in the field. 
 
Following the season opener McNeese will travel to Rice September 13 to compete in the Rice Invitational.
 
"We are excited for the season to begin," said cross country head coach Brandon Gilroy. "This Friday's meet marks the opening to our season officially this is still part of our pre-season phase of training. The teams have been back now about one and half to two weeks getting. Their training this time of year is mainly geared towards volume rather than quality for the next few weeks before we switch gears! This is a little gauge to see how their Summer Conditioning went. That said the athletes are excited to see some Fresh Faces from the other teams and have a chance to compete."
 
Also, the USTFCCCA released its 2019 preseason regional cross country polls on Monday that has the Cowboys ranked No. 10 and the Cowgirls ranked No. 13 in the South Central Region.
 
The men were one of five Southland Conference Schools in the top 15, with UIW being the highest at No. 7, while the women were one of four in their top 15 with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi being the highest at No. 10.