Men’s Cross Country takes second, women third

On the morning of Sept. 18, GCSU’s cross country teams competed at the Mercer RunFit Invitational.

GCSU’s men’s team placed second out of 13 teams, and the women’s team placed third out of 12.

Senior outdoor education major Dani Destiche finished first from GCSU and ninth overall finishing a 5k with a time of 20:40.

Before a meet, Destiche and her teammates pray and cheer before they race. The Mercer RunFit Invitational was at the Georgia Industrial Children’s Home venue in Macon.

“It’s very community oriented. The middle schoolers, college, and the high schoolers competed. It’s cool to see the progression of ages running,” Destiche said.

Cross country is often misconstrued as an individual sport, but Destiche disagrees.

“It’s the makeup of the team, not the success of the individual, but it’s also enough where you have to have the guts as an individual,” Destiche said.

Junior history major Tyler Mattix finished eighth overall with a 28:07 time and led the GCSU men’s cross country team to place second.

Mattix transferred to GCSU after North Georgia College & State University cut their cross country and track program due to lack of funding. Mattix competed in his first race at the Mercer RunFit Invitational.

“I finally got the first race out of the way. It’s good to finally get competitive,” Mattix said.

The Mercer RunFit Invitational is a preview of preparing runners for the Peach Belt Conference on Nov. 6.

“I’m pretty pumped,” Mattix said. “We will get new teams to compete against. We will get to see what other states have to offer.”

As the coach for both men and women’s teams, Joe Samprone remains positive for the PBC.

“I expect the teams to run very well,” Samprone said. “We will run into some good competition. I’m happy as a coach to see that the men’s and women’s teams makes their personal best.” Both teams return to action Sept. 25 in the 30th annual Will Wilson Citadel Invitational at 10 a.m.

Posted by Brittany Henderson on Sep 24 2010. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.