Annie Beurman
Reporting correspondent
abeurma1@jccc.edu
The impending landfall of Hurricane Matthew has led to the cancellation of the Disney Cross Country Classic meet at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida this Saturday. The college was set to send its men’s and women’s cross country teams to the meet.
Head coach Mike Bloemker said when it comes to a meet this big, a cancellation has never happened before.
“I feel bad for the athletes,” said Bloemker. “They’re disappointed. When we recruit people we tell them [the list of meets] we’re going to go to and we say we get to go to Disney World and it’s a big deal…We really look forward to it.”
The meet occurs annually for 20 college teams along with high school, middle school and elementary school teams from across the United States. The races were set to take place over the weekend, each one named after a Disney character. When the teams were done competing, they would have been free to enjoy the park.
The trip is an expensive one, meaning the college’s cross country team had to host fundraisers to attend. News of the cancellation was delivered to them on Oct. 5 due to Hurricane Matthew. The meet will not be rescheduled. Even though refunds were given to every team who had signed up, it didn’t rid the team of their disappointment.
The college’s cross country team fortunately found an alternate meet to participate instead. The team will be at the Haskell Invitational in Lawrence, Kansas on Saturday, Oct. 8.