Stephen F. Austin
Florida State Invitational
SFA Wins FSU Invite
10/10/2009 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
Oct. 10, 2009
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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - The Stephen F. Austin cross country teams posted dominant performances Saturday in the Florida State Invitational, as both the Lumberjacks and Ladyjacks captured team titles. The SFA men swept the top three individual spots and put all five scoring runners in the top 10 among collegiate competitors, while the Ladyjacks placed four of their top five inside the first 10 slots.
"We were pretty solid across the board," said SFA head coach Lou Snelling. "I thought we ran well, especially considering we're just a week out from our last meet. I was happy with the results."
The Lumberjacks finished with a team score of 24 points, 45 ahead of the 69 points put up by Florida State's B squad. Sophomore Mitch Ownbey paced SFA with his first-place time of 24:50, a personal record for an 8,000-meter cross country course. Senior Keith Mahipala chased him home eight seconds later, and junior Dennis Yeats took third with a time of 25:10.
"Our guys up front put themselves in a good spot right from the gun," Snelling said. "We had a little bigger spread from one to three than last week, but that's just a case of different people recovering at different rates."
Sophomore Harmon McClanahan finished 10th overall but eighth among scoring athletes with a time of 25:57, and classmate Adam Saloom picked up 10 points by finishing 13th with a time of 26:08, 30 seconds better than his time at last week's Cowboy Jamboree. Sophomores Xavier Rodriguez (26:23) and Logan Smart (26:52) were 16th and 20th, respectively.
"Adam ran a whole lot better today," Snelling said. "Going from 26:38 to just a hair over 26 minutes, that's a big step for him. Harmon was a little slower than last week, but it was good to see our four and five finish closer together."
In the women's race, junior Amy Shackelford led the way, finishing second. Her time of 17:48 was just seven seconds off the pace set by the leader. Sophomore Stephanie Ganter was third, just two seconds behind Shackelford.
"The girls race was a little bit more competitive," Snelling said. "But, the same as with the guys, we put ourselves in good spots early, and that was really nice to see."
Junior Megan Jenkins took eighth with a time of 18:22, and true freshman Haley Parsons finished 10th, clocking in at 18:26, giving her two top-four finishes in as many weeks. Junior Marie Flores crossed the line in 18:48 to finish 17th and give the Ladyjacks a team score of 40 points. Florida State's B team finished second with 50 points.
"Haley is doing an awesome job," Snelling said. "It's tough to step in as a true freshman and have that kind of impact, but I'm really, really happy with Haley. Her consistency with training has helped her be more consistent in her racing."
Sophomore Randi Wymer was 23rd with a time of 19:06, and classmate Brette Fleming-Wood took 25th, finishing in 19:09. Junior Meredith Blocker posted a 36th-place time of 20:04.
"Obviously, winning is nice," Snelling said. "What's important is we were able to work on some of those things we wanted to accomplish, in terms of bringing down those gaps. Our women's spread from one-to-five was about a minute, which is an improvement. Also, our four-to-five gap on the men's side came down quite a bit. I was really happy with that."
SFA's next scheduled competition is Oct. 31, when the teams travel to Corpus Christi, Texas, for the Southland Conference Championships.
"We accomplished a lot of the goals we set for ourselves today," Snelling said. "We still have a lot to take care of before conference, but we have three weeks from today to get it done. That's a fair amount of time at this point in the season."
-- SFA --
