Running in just their second race of the season after Hurricane Irma hit Florida, the men’s and women’s cross-country team placed seventh and 14^th (respectively) in the UF Mountain Dew Invitational.
The men finished the day with 229 points and were less than 10 points back of both Stetson and Miami and well back of first place North Florida. The women, who raced after the men, finished with 488 points right behind fellow ASUN conference rival, Stetson.
“We had some strong individual performances, but as a group it was not a good day for us,” said FGCU head coach Cassandra Gordon to FGCU athletics. “We’ve been through a lot of adversity these past couple weeks. We will get through it and become stronger because of it.”
Carin Berryhill finished eighth in the race with a team leading 25:14.90 time in the 8K. Jan Figueroa finished one spot lower than he did last year, but broke his time by over a minute. Troy Clark, Joseph Salerno, and Cole Pruim all finished in the top 100 with times just less than 28 minutes.
For the women who ran in the 5K, Carley Lutzow finished in 18^th place and was the first Eagle to finish with a time of 18:34.10. Anita Munoz finished nearly one minute behind Lutzow with the second fastest time for FGCU.
“I’m proud of Carlin (Berryhill) and Jan (Figueroa) – who ran over a minute faster on this course from last year – for stepping up and having breakthrough races,” Goodson said. “I’m also happy for Carley (Lutzow); it was a very good day for her as she ran a full minute faster on this course from last season.”
The Eagles will head to Indiana next to face off in the Notre Dame Invitational on Friday, Sept. 29 at 4 p.m.