Men’s CC takes first, women third at ASU

Coming off a second place finish at last week’s meet, the Georgia College women’s cross country team took the line at the ASU Tri-Meet, hosted by Augusta State University.

The Bobcats finished third overall with 63 team points. This season’s young leader, freshman Allison Lones, showed up in Augusta coming off four top 10 finishes.

Last week’s third place finish at the Young Harris Invitational was her third race in a row for setting the team pace.

Letting the accomplishments weigh little on her mind, Lones took pace to the straight shot 5K course and finished in historical fashion.

Shattering the 8-year-old record of 19:44 held by Bethany Loushine in 2002, Lones’ blistering finish of 19:13 makes her a new record holder.

“One of my goals was to run in the teens,” Lones said. “When I got my first mile in at 5:50, I thought ‘if I keep up this pace it will be a personal best,’ but I never thought of breaking a record.”

Embedding herself in school history and finishing fifth overall, Lones led the team to another successful race.

Parents, coaches and teammates celebrating alongside, Lones never saw the final time when she crossed the line, but her surrounding mob told her of her feat.

Lones had an idea of the favored runner to take first, so she made sure to stay close to her for the first few miles.

Also having a great year is junior Karissa Ekstrom, coming off a fourth place finish. Ekstrom and Lones have had a superb season thus far.

The two have been working together through coach Dobson’s training and the results are evident. Ekstrom’s overall ninth place finish of 19:40 also broke the previous record, placing her just behind Lones. Freshmen Andre Byrnes and Ashton Passino continued their success from last week’s top 20 finishes.

Byrnes crossed at 20:21, taking 16th, while Passino came in at 20:37 taking 19th to repeat top twenty finishes. Sophomore Courtney Timmerman finished 22nd in 19:40, ten seconds behind Passino.

Augusta State won their home meet taking the team title with 31 points. Holly Keeper of Augusta State won the individual title, finishing in 18:20.

While Lones has led the women’s team, junior Daniel Horseman has been the defined men’s leader. Horseman took first place in last week’s invitational, leading the 8K race to bring the Bobcat men’s team to a first place finish.

Horseman, a runner who relies on nutrition and diligent practice, was recently the athlete of the week and in Augusta he proved why. Leading the men’s team again, finishing seventh overall at 26:11, Horseman comes off the successful race however, “a little frustrated”.

The previous 8K Georgia College record is 26:47, actually held by Coach Rich Dobson. Horseman, along with teammates Tyler Mattix, Philip Laskey and Rob Manning, technically broke the record.

However, due to confusion on if the 8K course was actually full regulation size, the full result is still unofficial.

Regardless, it was a successful morning for the Bobcats. The pack mentality paid off; while two other runners finished in the top ten, junior Tyler Mattix took eighth with 26:26 and freshman Philip Laskey came in at ninth with 26:28.

Knowing the course was fast-paced, Horseman, Mattix and Laskey stayed together almost the entire race.

After crossing the first mile at 5:16, the three encouraged one another to keep it up.

“We wanted to keep that pace going,” Horseman said. “At the half way point I knew we were on pace to break the record.”

A mile out Horseman broke free for the finish paving the way for a pack of Bobcat runners.

Junior Rob Manning finished just out of the top 10 at 26:39.

One place behind was classmate Colin Conroy at 26:54. UNC Pembroke took the team title with 25 points, and finishing right behind in second place was Georgia College with 47 points.

UNCP’s Pardon Ndhlovu took the individual at 24:28.

The Bobcats are back in action Nov. 6 at 9 a.m. at the Peach Belt Conference Championships in Evans, Ga.

Posted by Scotty Thompson on Nov 5 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.