Top-10 Finishes for Cross Country at Mountain Dew Invite
Sept. 18, 2009
CORAL GABLES – The University of Miami cross country teams traveled to Gainesville, Fla. to compete in the Mountain Dew Invitational and both teams recorded top-10 finishes in the 21st annual event on Friday evening.
For the second straight race, sophomore Janet Price led the women, crossing the finish line in 19:49.29. Fellow sophomore Anna Bona was the second Hurricane to finish at 20:11.50.
In their first race of the season, juniors Caitlin Knapp and Emma Steppe ran a 20:17.45 and a 20:24.99 respectively. Another junior, Katharine Woodard was the fifth Miami runner at 20:31.30. Also scoring for the women was sophomore Nehali Patel and junior Jackie Sullivan.
“The women weren’t aggressive enough in the early miles,” said assistant cross country coach Damon Griffiths. “But that’s something that we will get back to work on next week in practice.”
The women placed 10th out of the 23 teams and the host Florida Gators were the team champions. The individual title also went to the Gators, as Charlotte Browning finished at 17:25.08.
For the men, Charles Michel was also the top-finisher for the second straight time, conquering the 8k course in 26:34.20. senior Julio Bonilla was the next to score for the `Canes at 27:13.60, followed by freshman Greg Kaczka at 28:12.80, who was making his collegiate debut.
“Charles had a great race,” added Griffiths. “He had over a minute personal best time at this distance. We need to go stronger leading up to the Great American and the ACC’s.”Sophomore Matthew Wilson and Austin Rector crossed the finish line as the fourth and fifth runners to score for Miami and freshman Damon Campbell rounded out the top-six.
Florida took the team title with 20 points while Embry Riddle’s Evans Kirwa won the individual title in a time of 24:21.10. The men also placed 10th as a team with 274 points.
Both the men’s and women’s teams will have two weeks to prepare for the Great American Cross Country Festival to be held in C
