Men’s cross country runs strong at the 8k Bobcat Invitational, takes second place

Bobcat Invitational Results

The men all improved their times and places from last years cross country home opener.

The Georgia College men’s cross country team started off the Fall season with their first meet at West Campus on Friday, Sept. 2, against Savannah College of Art and Design and Young Harris College.
Of the three teams that competed, the Bobcats finished in second place at the third annual Bobcat Invitational.
The Bobcats started off the 2011 season coming in as a strong second. The overall winner for the Bobcat Invitational was Ignacio Fernandez from SCAD, who finished with a time of 27:05.
The first Bobcat to finish the 8k race and claiming the third place spot was senior Tyler Mattix with a time of 28:01 on the West Campus Cross Country Course. Finishing right behind Mattix was Bobcat senior Daniel Horseman who finished the race in fourth place at 28:26. Nipping at his fellow teammate’s heels was senior Colin Conroy who finished just three seconds behind Horseman with a time of 28:29, giving him a fifth place finish.
The next GC runner to finish was sophomore Phillip Laskey, who took the eighth place finish with a time of 28:53.
Finishing behind Laskey for the Bobcats and taking the 14th place spot was senior Rob Manning, who finished with a time of 30:25.
Coming in at 31:10 at 22th was freshman Beau Bittinger. Finishing one spot behind Bittinger at 23rd place was sophomore Tucker Forbes with a time of 31:14.
Taking 28th was senior Travis Knight with a time of 32:54.
Bringing up the rear for the Bobcats was junior Nick Widener, who finished 30th with a time of 33:47.
“I was very pleased with the results for the men’s team. We had a solid performance from Tyler, Dan, Collin, Philip and Rob. I was very happy with the top five,” Head Coach Joe Samprone said. “They all did really good, ran well and gave it their all. I was very proud.”
Taking the first place spot was SCAD, who finished the day with 26 points. The Bobcats finished with 42 points and Young Harris completed the race with 71 points.
“We have one important race all season: Oct. 22. Everything is pre-season until then, and that will be the only time we will see all the other teams. This race was like dress rehearsal, we just wanted to see how to make this team better,” Samprone said. “I was extremely proud of what I saw at this first race. We are working on getting our … (top) five runners to run as fast and close to each other as possible.”
In preparation for the upcoming meets, Samprone said the teams primary concern was maintenance, keeping the team healthy, well rested, eating right and staying safe around campus.
“Our goal is to finish the top two or three at conference. That would be excellent, but my main concern is to get them to the line healthy, so they can walk away with good memories,” Samprone said.
The Bobcats are back in action on Saturday, Sept. 10, when they will travel to California to compete in the UC Irvine Invitational.

Posted by Brad Rhoden on Sep 8 2011. 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.