Boston - The Stony Brook men’s and women’s cross country teams will compete in their first meet away from the Stony Brook campus in 2015 when the Seawolves take part in the Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown Friday at Franklin Park in Boston. The women’s 5K will begin at 3 p.m. and be followed by the men’s 8K at 3:30 p.m.

The Seawolves will face their most challenging competition of the year so far with eight regionally ranked teams in the women’s race and seven on the men’s side. Three nationally ranked teams on the women’s side – Georgetown, Providence and Syracuse – will compete along with a Syracuse men’s team ranked No. 3 in this week’s USTFCCCA poll.

"Tomorrow the season really starts … we jump in to the fire pit,” said head coach Andy Ronan. “We need to see where we are at this point in relation to those teams so that we can figure out what we need to do over the coming weeks to achieve our goals of a top-10 regional finish and to challenge for the conference title in October and then into November. It is also a good opportunity for Christina [Melian] to see how she matches up against the best individuals in the conference and region. I do feel she can be in contention for the win and certainly a top-five finish.

“The men face seven regionally ranked teams. We would like to beat a few of them, but the goal is too take a step in our race preparation for the end of the season, and learn how to compete at this level on a consistent basis.”

The Seawolves were last in action two weeks ago at the Wolfie Invitational, with three conference foes – Binghamton, UMBC and New Hampshire – competing alongside Stony Brook. The previous week, the Seawolves hosted a field that included America East members Hartford and UMass Lowell. The Seawolf men won the team title at the Stony Brook Season Opener, while Melian finished first on the women's side in a second-place team finish.

Those schools, in addition to the remainder of the conference, will take part in the America East Championships on campus Saturday, Oct. 31.