TEMPE – Head Coach Ryan Ray kicks off his second season with the Sun Devil Cross Country team this Saturday at Northern Arizona’s George Kyte Invitational. The men’s race kicks off September 2 at 1:30 P.M. MST., followed by the women’s race at 2:30 p.m. NAU is hosting the meet at Buffalo Park in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Northern Arizona George Kyte Invitational Live Results
Ray became head coach of the Sun Devils in December 2022 after being named the interim head coach in September 2022. He previously was an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at the University of Arizona (2021-22) and Boise State University (2019-20) prior to his second stint with the Sun Devils.
In his first year as head coach for ASU, Ray led the cross-country team to 14 personal bests and multiple notable finishes and looks to build on last year’s foundation.
“We are leaps ahead of where we were last year. Both the men and women are able to do times and paces in August this year that they weren’t able to do in October of last year. So we’re in a great spot and it’s very exciting,” Ray said.
Second year student-athlete Asher Leslie heads into the season with gratitude for the coaching he’s received from Ray.
“It’s been really awesome so far. He’s really good at paying attention to small details and how everybody’s feeling, so training under him has been great. He’s a really great coach. He’s able to tailor training well for everybody, at least that’s been my experience. It’s just been a really enjoyable experience so far,” Leslie said.
Ahead of the Sun Devil’s first meet, Coach Ray recognizes the challenges that will come with running up north in Flagstaff.
“We’re mainly looking at this weekend as a training session for us. It is 7,000 feet in elevation at NAU at Buffalo Park and that transition is pretty difficult – to run at your highest level at elevation when you train at sea level. But that being said, we have a handful of women that will be competitive and will be at the front of the race and will do well. And then the rest of us we’re going to learn, take this as a training session, take the data away from it, and then build and adjust training moving forward to our next race,” Ray said.
Third year Claire Le Gallo said the team is focusing on all of the important technical aspects as well as making sure the…
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