SFA Women Finish Fourth, Men Fifth at Norry Hersey Rice Invitational

Friday, September 7

Houston, Texas

ALL DAY

Stephen F. Austin

Rice Invitational

SFA Women Finish Fourth, Men Fifth at Norry Hersey Rice Invitational

9/7/2018 11:04:00 PM | Men's Cross Country, Women's Cross Country

By: Kevin Meyer | Assistant Director of Athletic Media Relations

Men's Results | Women's Results

HOUSTON, Texas -- The Stephen F. Austin men's and women's cross country teams ran well in their first full action of the 2018 fall campaign, running a 6K and 4K, respectively, at the 43rd annual Norry Hersey Rice Invitational on Friday evening. The women's team placed fourth overall with a total of 101 points, while the men ran to a fifth-place finish with 105 points.Titus Kiplagat was the top overall finisher for SFA in either race, taking second in the men's race with a time of 20:21.1. Freshman Awet Beraki finished seventh after a strong start to the race with a time of 20:32.4.

"In the men's race, Awet and Titus were leading the first half of the race, and they maybe went out a bit too hard", said SFA cross country coach Brionne Clark. "They both ran really well, we just need to learn a few lessons about how we start off these races and pacing ourselves well.

Erick Rotich and Grant Tiff came in at 31st and 32nd overall with times of 21:23.1 and 21:23.6, respectively, while Pedro Flores rounded out the men's scoring with a time of 43rd and a 21:54.0 time. Caleb Stewart finished with a time of 24:02.2 in 71st, followed by Chris Shirk in 73rd 24:25.8.

For the women's team, sophomore Kelsey Ramirez was the top finisher, placing 12th with a time of 14:39.1 and followed shortly behind by Taryn Surratt in 14th with a time of 14:42.7. Claire Crone gave SFA three finishers in the top 20 with a time of 14:52.5, while Carolyn Evans finished 31st (15:20.3) despite running half of the race with just one shoe after the other came off her foot. Elizabeth Guerra finished in 42nd at 15:42.2, with teammate LaSean Davis wrapping up the 50th spot with a time of 16:03.2. Samantha Roberts rounded out the women's side with a time of 17:51.8.

"I thought it was a good meet for us in the first time we ran almost a full squad. We still have a lot of work to do but I'm exited with how we started off the season and know we will improve as we go. On the women's side I thought Kelsey Ramirez, Taryn Surratt and Clare Crone all looked really good, and they're ready to do big things this season. It was nice to see Carolyn Evans out there and I know she'll continue to improve throughout the season. I thought our women's team competed really hard and gave a great effort."

-SFA-