Junior team announced for Edinburgh XC

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

The U.S. roster is set for the upcoming Great Edinburgh XC Meet in Scotland on Jan. 9 and the junior team includes a handful of top high school runners. 

The junior men's team will reunite Californians Phillip Rocha of Arcadia, second at the recent Foot Locker Cross Country Championships, and CIF Division 3 champion Austin Tamagno. The two have a long history together as club teammates before they reached high school. 

Additionally, Foot Locker fourth place finisher Garek Bielaczyc of Salt Lake City East UT and Foot Locker fifth place finisher Paul Roberts of Lyons CO are part of the team. College freshmen Christian Liddell (Oklahoma State) and Peter Seufer (Virginia Tech) are also part of the U.S. lineup.

NXN champion Katie Rainsberger, who was 55th at the World Cross Country Championships' junior race in China last spring, leads the U.S. women's team. She will be joined by Foot Locker runner-up Maryjeanne Gilbert from Notre Dame of Peoria IL and Judy Pendergast of Naperville North IL. College freshmen Carleen Jeffers of Brown University, Devin Clark of Arkansas and Amy Davis of Wisconsin are also on the team. 

The meet in Scotland offers many of the junior athletes a first opportunity to represent the U.S. in international competition. For Rocha, who competed at the World Youth Championships in Colombia, and Rainsberger and Roberts, who was 59th in the junior men's race at the World Championships in China, it will mark a return to overseas travel for a race.

The meet at Holyrood Park in Edinburgh will be televised in Great Britain on BBC One. The meet is organized with three teams contesting each race -- the U.S., Great Britain and Europe. The junior men run 6 kilometers and the women run 4K.