Bobcats run to top 5 at Mercer

Barreling past their competition at the Mercer RunFit Sports Invitational in Macon, the GCSU cross country teams came through with an impressive performance despite the choking humidity on the morning of Sept. 26.

The women’s team took fifth place out of the 20-team field at the competition in the 5K race, placing second among the five Peach Belt Conference schools with a 179-point total.

Pacing the squad for the first time this season, senior Virginia Balkcom finished in 25th place with a time of 22:16.

Coming in two slots later at 22:27 was PBC Runner of the Week and senior teammate, Heather Raines.

Sophomore Sarah Balkcom expressed her contentment with the outcome of the team’s victory over the 2008 PBC champions, Columbus State University.

“I’m really proud of my sister for doing so well in the meet. She has been really consistent all season and is continually improving,” Balkcom said. “I’m also proud of the top girl and guy finishers for finishing so close together. That just shows how competitive our team is and how much stronger we are as a team compared to last year.”

Other top finishers for the Bobcat women’s team were three sophomores, Karissa Ekstrom (22:54), Victoria Dobson (22:57) and Alycia Hayes, who rounded out the Bobcat top five in 48th place.

Placing ninth out of 16 teams overall, the Bobcat men ran the 8K race aggressively enough to earn second place among PBC schools at the race with 240 points.

Leading the Bobcats for the first time in his running career was junior Tim Cary, who crossed the line at 28:49, taking 37th place. One slot and 10 seconds behind Cary was sophomore Travis Knight.

Following close behind were three sophomore teammates; Rob Manning (29:12), Colin Conroy (29:38) and recording a personal best was Michael Heuett (30:21) in 78th place.

“I think our team has potential to bust out a good score at our final meet,” Cary said, “and I know we can place well at regionals if we train hard for this last month or so.”

GCSU runners will be focused on achieving both personal and team goals as they compete Oct. 10 at the Southern Challenge in Marietta.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Oct 2 2009. 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