Cross Country teams off to a running start

Two weekends ago Georgia College & State University’s cross country teams competed and did very well.

Going into the weekend, the men’s team became worried because of an injury to J.R. Black and the ineligibility of Jeff Raymond. The team lost two of its best runners and needed someone to set up, and they got that in Morgan Stallings. Stallings set the fourth fastest time at GC&SU in the 10k with a time of 37:08. Overall, Stallings finished 19th to help the Bobcats finish with 255 points. Kennesaw State won the meet and was led by Gediminas Banevicius, who finished the race with a time of 33:31.

Overall, the men finished in ninth place, which was not what they were expecting, but things will improve. With two important players not being able to run, GC&SU will have to start expecting younger runners to step it up for better results. With so many talented runners on this team, that should not be a problem.

Stallings was not the only runner to have a good race for the Bobcats. Will Hill came in 56th with a time of 41:55, and Will Cleghorn finished 59th with a good time of 42:33. James Davis and Noah Sword finished right next to each other, coming in 60th and 61st.

The GC&SU men’s cross country team had a good start to their upcoming season. With a conference meet this weekend, things are looking fairly good for the Bobcats and their running hopes.

For the first time ever this season, the Lady Bobcat runners will run a 6k instead of the usual 5k like in years past.

Freshman Bethany Loushine showed no problems in running the extra mile when she recorded the fastest 6k time in school history. Her time of 26:38 was good enough to earn her an eleventh place finish. But the GC&SU women fell short of winning after a really good seventh place finish. The women finished with 145 points and seemed to feel that they can do a lot better. West Georgia won the event when Shawanna Whites finished first with a time of 23:54, while the team piled up 48 points for the win.

Nickie Black, who finished second overall for the girls, locked up the 27th spot with a time of 29:30. Kristina Tittle had a really good start to her season with a 30th place finish, when she recorded a time of 29:53. Karen Hjelmeland finished 37th, and Jamila Radford came in right behind her with a 40th place finish.

After leaving the meet from Lander on Saturday, the men’s team had many things to cheer about.

The men runners finished second overall in the 8k race with a total of 62
points. USC Spartanburg had all top five finishers and registered 15 points to win the meet. Tim Gibbons finished first overall with a time of 29:54.

J.R. Black had yet another record day. When he finished sixth overall, Black had the eighth fastest time in school history, 28:40.

For the second week in a row Stallings had a good day, finishing with a time of 28:47 and recording an eighth-place finish. With Black and Stallings, the Bobcats have two really solid runners leading the way, whom the younger runners can learn from. Hill made a good push to become a concern for other teams as he finished eleventh with a time of 29:54. Cleghorn and Davis had solid days when they finished 16th and 21st with times of 31:37 and 32:58 respectively.

With a good weekend and time to reflect on the positive aspects of what happened, things can only get better for this young team.

The women runners had a very good weekend. After last weekend, which the girls just wanted to forget about, that is definitely what the girls did. GC&SU finished 3rd, with Anderson College winning the event after receiving 50 points and having a first place finish by Lina Edner, who finished with a time of 19:55. USC Spartanburg did well in the women’s division too, with a second place finish.

In this 5k race, the GC&SU women runners had a very impressive day at Lander University. Loushine ran the fastest 5k time in school history to lead her team. She finished second overall and ran the course in 20:31.

The old record was set by Doraleen Riley, which stood at 21:22 (that was the record for five years). Tittle made a nice push at the top of the leader board after finishing 12th overall with a time of 22:23.

For two weeks in a row now, Radford had another good showing after finishing 15th with a time of 22:46. Hjelmeland and Biktyakova rounded out the top five for the Bobcats with 18th and 20th place finishes.

After such a good weekend for both teams, everyone will get to rest this weekend because both teams are off. The Bobcats will be back in action Saturday, Sept. 22 at Clayton College & State University in Morrow, GA.

With good results coming from both teams, expectations will be a lot higher for the next meet. These two teams have so many good things going right now, things look like they are ready to take off.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 14 2001. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry