Men's and Women's Cross Country Run to Top-Three Finishes

Oct. 3, 2008

Men’s Results | Women’s Results

TITUSVILLE, Fla. – The University of Miami men’s and women’s cross country teams competed in the Florida Runners Invitational presented by Nike on Friday evening, with the women placing second and the men third.

Freshman Anna Bona led the way for the women with an 11th place finish with a time of 19:08. Sophomore transfer Emma Steppe continued her strong season with a 13th place finish at 19:23. Tampa, Fla. native Page Price was the third Hurricane runner to cross the line with a time of 19:34. Sophomore Katharine Woodard was the fourth Miami runner to finish under 20 minutes on the 5K course, with a time of 19:54.

Rounding out the top-seven for the women were sophomores Caitlin Knapp (20:22) and Kalea Aguon (20:25) and freshman Casey Crist (20:53).

Miami was the second of 11 teams in the meet, with 69 points as UCF took the title with 19 points.

“The women ran great today, finishing with a total of eight personal bests,” said assistant cross country coach Damon Griffiths. “I am very pleased with how they ran, even though we were without some of the `A’ team runners. This gave our younger runners experience as we head into the conference meet at the end of the month.”

Once again for the men, senior Ryan Woodlee took the reigns, finishing third overall and leading the Hurricanes to a third place team finish.

Woodlee as been the team’s top finisher in every race so far this season and he finished with a time of 26:26 Friday night on the 8K course. Fellow seniors Vince Giambanco (13, 27:03), Eric Miller (15, 27:25) and Andrew Chuplis (18, 27:32) finished in the top-20.

Freshmen Michael Viklund finished with a time of 28:20, while Jules Rosen (28:35), Matthew Wilson (29:05) and Wes Rogerson (30:27) rounded out the race for the men.

Miami finished behind only FIU and Nova Southeastern in the 11-team field.

“I am pleased with the way the men stayed steady throughout the race,” added Griffiths. “They showed a lot of improvement from the first half of the season, and I am excited to see what they can do in the next few weeks.”

Next week the team will head to Orlando for the second time this season, Saturday, October 11, to take part in the Disney Invitational. Miami competed in Orlando earlier in the year at the UCF invite.

The Hurricanes then travel to Boone, N.C. on October 17 in their final meet before the ACC Championships, November 1 in Chapel Hill, N.C.