Runners have two good weekends

Two weekends ago Georgia College & State University’s Cross Country teams were in action and did quite well.

The teams traveled to Augusta, Ga, for the Paine College Invitational. Bethany Loushine took first place and helped the Lady Bobcat runners finish second out of the seven teams in the tournament. Loushine crossed the line with a time of 17:19 and became only the second GC&SU women’s runner to finish first at a meet. Cheryl Bambrick was the only other runner who won three meets for GC&SU during the 1998 and 1999 seasons.

Other top performers were Kristina Tittle, who finished in the top 10 with a 6th place finish in a time of 19:12, and Nickie Black, who ran well and had a solid 11th place finish with a time of 19:48. Right behind Black, Karen Hjelmeland finished just a second off Black’s time with a 12th place, finish of 19:49. Lilia Biktyakova rounded out the top five for the Lady Bobcats with a 16th place finish with a time of 20:51.

The Lady Bobcats finished the race second with a total of 46 points — GC&SU only finished behind Fort Valley State ,which had a total of 23 points. After GC&SU was Clark-Atlanta with 89 points, they were followed by Benedict with 114 points. Paine, Augusta State, and Morris ended with scores of 130, 154, 184, respectively.

In the men’s race, J.R. Black had yet another good run as he led the Bobcats to a second place finish. Black crossed the line sixth overall with a time of 18:59. The Bobcats totaled 68 points for the entire meet.

Morehouse won the meet with a total of 19 points, led by Gary Alman’s first place finish with a time of 16:51. Fort Valley State came in third with 80 points, while Voorhees and Paine finished fourth and fifth, respectively.

Morris came in sixth with 139 points, and Benedict and Augusta State rounded out the top eight when they totaled 144 and 175 points, respectively.

Behind Black were four solid performances by Bobcat runners. Morgan Stallings and Will Hill both finished inside the top 10 with times of 19:35 and 19:46. Stallings finished in eight place, while Hill recorded a top 10 spot with an overall finish of 10th. Will Cleghorn finished 17th with a
time of 21:11. Noah Sword rounded out the top five for the men with a time of 21:54, which was good enough for a 27th place finish.

Later in the week, the Bobcat runners were at it once again. This time the Cross Country teams were in Clinton, Sc, for the Presbyterian College Invitational. Both teams had some ups and downs at the tournament.

The ladies got another good run from Loushine, who finished second overall with a time of 21:50. Her time of 21:50 was the sixth best in the women’s 5k at GC&SU, which gives her four of the top ten record times. Amazingly, Loushine is just a freshman and still has one more run this season to possibly set another record. But Loushine was not enough as the team finished seventh overall.

The women totaled 119 points. The winner of the meet was Erskine College with two top ten finishers in Perri Hiott and Jessica Martin. Erskine’s total team score was 76 points.

GC&SU had four runners scattered throughout the field. Tittle finished 25th with a time of 23:54. Hjelmeland and Biktyakova finished 3rd and 4th for the Lady Bobcats, finishing in the middle of the pack with times of 24:06 and 24:08, respectively. Rounding out the top five for the lady runners, Andrea Hines had a 34th place finish.

In the men’s 8k race, USC Spartanburg dominated the field with a total team score of 20 and 7 top 10 finishers. Their top five finishers ranked from 2nd to 6th in order. Travis Smith led Spartanburg with a time of 28:04.

For the GC&SU, Black led the Bobcats again with a time of 29:24 and finished the event 12th overall.

Other GC&SU finishers include Stallings, who was able to finish right behind Black with a 13th place finish while totaling a time of 29:45, and Hill, who had yet another good run. Finishing 19th overall, he recorded a time of 30:55.

Noah Sword had a time of 32:51 for a 29th finish. Misha Tenenbaum rounded out the top five when he crossed the finish line with a time 34:37, which gave him a 38th place finish. This marks the first time in Tenenbaum’s career at GC&SU that he cracked the top five.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Oct 19 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