Loushine and Black shatter school records
Sophomore Bethany Loushine and Senior J.R. Black decided that it was time to break Georgia College & State University’s top cross country times in school history. The good thing for the Bobcats was the fact that their efforts came the same day as the Erskine Invitational.
The Lady Bobcats finished fourth out of 12 teams in the 5K race with 146 points, while the men finished fifth in the 12 team field with 129 points in the 8K event.
In the women’s race, Loushine set her mark with a record time of 20:16 and a third place finish to once again enter her name in the GC&SU record book with the school’s fastest time. Loushine now owns eight of the top 10 times in school history.
“Bethany is just amazing. Every week she just amazes me and owns like eight of the top 10 times in school history,” said Head Coach Dr. Joseph Samprone. “She is just pretty incredible.”
Jessica Merill from Anderson College crossed the finish line first with a blazing time of 19:48 to help the Trojans win the meet with 38 points. Erskine College was second with 88 points followed by Catawba College for a third place finish with 123 points.
“The girls did a real good job last week in coming in fourth out of 12 teams,” said Samprone. “They did very well seeing how the competition was tough.”
GC&SU’s Mandy Allison put her name in the record books with the ninth fastest time in school history at 21:10 and an eighth place finish to enter the school’s top ten for the first time. The next three Bobcat runners were only seconds behind one another as Lindsey Bloodworth finished 47th with 23:19, Meghan Spall with 23:21 for a 48th place finish and Kelly Fleischmann rounded out the top five in 49th place with a time of 23:25.
In the men’s 8K, GC&SU’s J.R. Black also shattered the school’s fastest time while setting a career record with a time of 27:19 and a second place finish to surpass the previous record by 19 seconds.
“J.R. just set a new campus record, by like 19 seconds, which is really good,” said Samprone. “Two weeks ago Morgan beat J.R., then J.R. beat Morgan, so between them there is a rivalry that is good competition for the both of them. Both of them have been great runners in their four years here at GC&SU.”
Teammate Morgan Stallings made the school top 10 as well with a record time of 28:05 and a seventh place finish to enter the books with the sixth fastest time.
“The men are getting better each week,” said Samprone. “Finishing fifth out of 12 teams is a very good number. Both the girls and the guys teams have been running extremely well, heading into our conference meet.”
Ryan Willis from Catawba College was the medalist finishing with a time of 27:00. Truett-McConnell, however, was the meet champion with 57 points, while Barton College finished second with 93 points. Catawba and Francis Marion tied with 97 points to finish third.
GC&SU’s Will Hill finished 33rd overall with a time of 30:26, while Jeff
Raymond crossed the line at 31:26 to finish 43rd. Nate Mwane was GC&SU’s fifth finisher in 46th place and a time of 32:03. Will Cleghorn completed the race at 32:29 for a 48th place finish.
The Bobcats complete their fall season at the Peach Belt Conference Meet hosted by Francis Marion University on Saturday, Oct. 26 at Florence, South Carolina.
“I’m hoping for both teams to finish in the top half of the conference,” said Samprone. “For the guys to finish higher than fifth in the nine team field and the girls hopefully finishing higher than fifth in their 11 team field, are reasonable goals.”
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Oct 25 2002. Filed under Sports.
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