Mountaineers get preview of Big East Championship course

West Virginia cross country coach Sean Cleary hopes to get a look into the future this weekend.

The No. 15 West Virginia cross country team will travel to Syracuse, N.Y., Saturday to participate in the Big East Conference preview event, hosted by Syracuse. The event will give the team a chance to preview the course that it will run at the Big East Championships Oct. 30.

"The purpose of the event is to see the course that we will run (at) the Big East Championships later this season," Cleary said. "It is really going to help us prepare for October."

Not only will the race give the Mountaineers an opportunity to compete against conference foes, but Cleary feels this meet will better prepare the team for the rest of the season.

"We will race some quality teams on a course we will have to race on later this season," he said. "This is just a great opportunity for our younger girls to get some valuable experience."

WVU's lineup will be relatively the same as the one it sent out for the WVU Invitational, with the addition of two runners.

Junior Stephanie Caruso will be running for the first time this season for the Mountaineers, while sophomore Katie Gillespie will be making her debut for WVU.

Though WVU will be racing some stiff competition this weekend, Cleary is not treating the event any differently from early season events in the past.

"To be honest, we will train right through this meet," he said. "Our objective is not to find out how good we can be this weekend, but more so to know what to prepare for when the real running begins in October so we can be at our best then."

Cleary's main focus this weekend will be the ability to walk away with an idea of what his team needs to improve on while getting more of his roster real race experience.

"We will start to see more of the girls getting worked into the mix," he said. "Slowly, we will see our team fall into place."

The race will begin at 9 a.m.