Cross Country Heads North for Mountain Dew Invitational
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The University of Miami cross country team gears up to compete in its third meet of the season this Saturday at the Mountain Dew Invitational held at the Mark Bostick Golf Course in Gainesville, Fla.
The Canes men’s team is coming off a first place finish at the UCF Knight Invite, where Dylan Sykes proved his consistency and leadership placing first with a time of 27:44 in the 8K. Overall, Sykes has been the Canes’ top male finisher in both meets this season and distance coach Damon Griffiths has recently seen a change in the team’s attitude.
“This is going to be our biggest challenge of the regular season,” Griffiths said. “Coming off last Saturday, we have had a higher level of focus throughout the week at practice.”
The 30th annual invitational held by the University of Florida will host a women’s 5K and a men’s 8K. The meet features 29 schools competing in the women’s event and 23 teams competing in the men’s event.
“This meet will provide a higher level of intensity at the start of the race because of how many teams are competing,” Griffiths said.
The men’s team will have five athletes compete in the 8K, including Sykes, the talented freshman James Hasell, senior Matthew Weifels, sophomore Taj Bland and freshman Samuel Fleischman. Both Wiefels and Hasell produced top five finishes last weekend, helping the team tally 28 points.
The women’s team will have eight compete in the Gators home meet. Freshman Riley Howard will look to maintain her early success in the women’s third 5K event of the season. Howard produced a personal-best time of 18:45 in her debut race with the Canes and followed it up with another solid performance last weekend with a time of 19:15.
Howard will be joined with Anne den Otter, Abigail Kettle, Emma Langlois, Lauren Locke, Daria Pietropaolo, Olivia Raymond and Simone Vreeland.
Saturday’s meet will be the first time the Canes have competed in back-to-back weekends.
The men are set to start at 7:55 a.m., with the women’s race following at 8:30 a.m. The award ceremony is scheduled for approximately 9:30 a.m.
For more information on the 2018 cross country schedule, click here.
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