The Winthrop cross country team is set to host the Winthrop Invitational next weekend in what will likely be the team’s last competitive run ever on Winthrop’s campus.
According to head cross country and track coach Ben Paxton, the team plans to utilize a course that is currently being built along RiverBend Park starting in 2022.
“We’re building one of the top cross country courses in the United States,” Paxton said. “We’re looking at possibly bringing some of the biggest meets in the United States here — high school and collegiate.”
While Paxton said he loves the current course Winthrop runs on, he acknowledged that it was time for something new.
“Having put on the NCAA regional here, we had about 9,000 people out here out of the top teams in the country [in] November of 2018. The NCAA asked us again, ‘Would we want a bid?’ and we said ‘Yes, but we need a bigger place.’
“This course has had Michigan, Oregon, BYU — everybody’s run here. It’s a legendary course, but as with progress, you’ve got the intramural lights going up, losing part of the golf course. Things get built, and it was time to move, and then the county came to us and asked about this.”
York County purchased the RiverBed Park land (a whopping 1,900 acres) in December 2018. Paxton said the county and Winthrop have been working together on the course for about 13 months.
“York County’s trying to become the amateur sports capital,” Paxton said. “They really wanted to do something that could draw two to three weekends throughout September, October, November; an economic impact in the millions and draw 50, 60, [or] 100 teams out here each weekend.”
In the meantime, Winthrop will host 15 to 20 teams on Sept. 18 for the Winthrop Invitational, an event that’s taken place for nearly 40 years. The meet is free admission for the public and will be Winthrop’s second competition of the season.
The Eagles competed at Elon on Friday, with senior Olivia Esselman finishing highest for the women (32nd) and freshman Daren Hinds finishing highest for the men (40th).
“The beauty of our sport, maybe as opposed to the soccer and volleyball teams which are competing — they want to win every game, we want to be fast at the end. Cause really all that counts is how fast you are going into the conference meet or the NCAA regional meet,” Paxton said prior to the opener at Elon.
Paxton said he expects both Hinds and Esselman to have a really good year, calling Hinds “the top freshman” that Winthrop brought in and noting that Esselman looks really fit and poised to “hopefully finish All-Conference” this season.
Paxton also said he anticipates freshman Nolan Weisdorfer from Michigan to make an immediate impact on the men’s side, joining Hinds as two of four freshmen new to the men.
Paxton pointed out that three of Winthrop’s top freshmen last season — Austin Spencer, Max Davis and Darren Frasier — are all still freshmen eligibility-wise this year due to last season being shortened.
The women, on the other hand, return a veteran squad with no newcomers. Redshirt-sophomore Sidney Jenkins was Winthrop’s top finisher (66th) behind Esselman at Elon, followed closely by sophomore Madeline Simmons (72nd).
Following the Winthrop Invitational, the Eagles will compete at Coastal Carolina University on Oct. 1 and USC Upstate on Oct. 16 before taking on the conference championship and NCAA regional.
