LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Bellarmine University men's cross country team is set to compete in its second ASUN Championship, which is scheduled to begin at 7:40 a.m. (ET) Saturday at Disney's ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida.

The men's race is an 8k with a maximum of nine runners per team.

KNIGHTS COMPETING
Senior Chandler Gibson, junior Nate Smith, sophomore Nick Lewis and freshmen Chase Atkins, Ryan Burchett, Nolan Hester, Josh Meiman, D.K. Schnieders and Wil Stamm comprise the nine Knights who will toe the starting line at the ASUN Championship.

Although the conference meet will be the first postseason college race for a significant portion of the competing Knights, Coach Chase Broughton believes they'll be comfortable handling the event.

"While this group may be young, they are not inexperienced in championship races," he said. "Every single freshman that we will have on the line has competed at their high school state championship on multiple occasions, so they understand what that big-race feel is going to be like. That being said, we also try to keep the same routine and approach to every single race. Saturday will be no different for them and they will come ready to compete to the best of their ability."

LAST TIME OUT
Bellarmine concluded the regular season Oct. 15 at the Bradley Pink Classic. The Knights placed 24th out of 31 in the "Red Race."

Atkins delivered the 18th-best 8k time program history after finishing in 25:06.0, good for a team-best 57th at the meet. Smith, Hester, Schnieders and Lewis filled out the top 5.

"It was a middle-of-the-road performance for us overall," Broughton said. "We were coming off a heavy two-week training block and definitely went into the race a little tired but competed well in the latter half of the race. I also think we learned some valuable lessons from Bradley that we can use to help us have a better performance at the ASUN Championship."

LAST ASUN CHAMPIONSHIP
Unfolding in the spring after the season was delayed due to the pandemic, North Florida handily won the team title with 16 points and was followed by Liberty (54) and Lipscomb (85). Bellarmine, in its inaugural ASUN meet, finished seventh out of eight teams.

Lipscomb and North Florida are ranked Nos. 4 and 5, respectively, in the South Region, while Liberty is No. 8 in the Southeast Region.

"Lipscomb, Liberty and North Florida are all ranked very high in their respective regions and would be considered the favorites for the team title," Broughton noted. "That being said, we are in a very deep league and I wouldn't be surprised at all to see some other teams challenging the favorites for those positions. Anything can happen in our sport and it should make for an exciting championship race."

WHERE DOES BELLARMINE STACK UP?
Although the league has grown, the Knights believe they can improve upon that seventh-place finish from last season.

Stamm, Lewis, Smith, Hester and Schnieders have all joined Atkins in posting all-time top-35 marks in the 8k in program history.

"The goal that we set for ourselves at the beginning of the season was to place in the top 5 as a team," Broughton said of the conference meet. "There will be a lot of teams battling for that spot that are all very talented, but we believe that if we execute to the best of our abilities on Saturday we can be in that mix. We haven't talked much about individual goals, but if we do hit our team goal and place in the top 5, I would expect us to have a few guys challenging for All-Freshman Team honors and possibly All-Conference honors as well."

MOUSE HOUSE CAN WAIT
There's no disputing the allure of having a conference meet at Disney World, but the Magic Kingdom will have to wait until the job is done.

"This is definitely a business trip," Broughton said. "The Disney stuff is obviously a very cool opportunity and experience for all of our student-athletes, but we are going down there to compete for a conference championships first and foremost. That being said, once the business is taken care of, we will let the student-athletes enjoy the experience that they earned."

TICKETS/ADMISSION INFORMATION
Per the ASUN, "Admission will be charged for the ASUN Championship. Length of Event (LOE) passes will be available for $19.50 for adults (ages 10+) and 14.50 for children (ages 3-9). Children under three (3) years of age will be admitted free. No other complimentary tickets will be available for the Championship." 

Tickets must be purchased online through the link provided here.

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