Rowan women’s cross country is set to take on a final regular season event this weekend at the Border Battle, Rowan’s home meet at DREAM Park in Logan Township, New Jersey. It’s been a successful regular season, with a second place finish at Salisbury, first place at Stockton and 20th out of 45 at Lehigh University. Now, the Profs turn their focus towards a course they know quite well.

“We know the course pretty well,” junior Ally Wernik said. “For me, I raced there all throughout high school. … We’ve raced it, we’ve done it multiple times in college, so we know what it will be like.”

Head coach Shedrick Elliott III, knows how much of an advantage it is to have home course familiarity. 

“I think they’re very excited,” Eliott III said. “You know, obviously familiarity. They practiced on it this past Friday just to kind of go through what we’ll see Saturday.”

Wernik is one of the top returners from last year’s Border Battle event, with a 25th place finish in a 100-person run. Gabriella Pagano is the top returner with her 14th place finish last year, and Emily Zanni placed 50th.

“We really just worked together as a team and went in with a plan for the race and executed it as well as we should’ve, and that really helped us,” Wernik said.

Rowan went to practice at DREAM Park on Oct. 10 for a refresher on the course, a huge advantage they have with close proximity.

“Last Friday was the basic refresher of like, okay, this is how you work the course, navigate it and things like that,” Wernik said.

The Profs had a flurry of talent place well in last year’s Open Race, that did not run in the Championship race. Gianna Burgio, Jenna Spadaro, Mia Vaughn and Gianna Norris all placed top-50 in last year’s Open Race. While it’s not entirely clear who, a mix of girls will be up in the Championship race this season.

The Border Battle is slated for 11 a.m. on Saturday as Rowan’s last regular season event.

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