|
Tuesday, November 08, 2011 by Eddie Anderson |
Print
Email
RSS
Share
Ave Maria University hosted a very successful Cross Country Championship meet for The Sun Conference on Saturday, November 5th. It was the first postseason event to be hosted by Gyrene athletics.
The Ave Maria staff crafted a beautiful course used for both the men's and women's races that started and finished on the grassy lawn of Ave Maria's North Park. The spectator and athlete friendly course included overlooking views of vast farm land and wooded areas with a variety of surfaces to provide a true cross country experience.
Fans gathered on Saturday for the start of the men's 8 kilometer race at 9 a.m., and saw Embry-Riddle's Evans Kirwa set the time standard with a 25:39 finish nearly a minute faster than the second place runner, Ignacio Fernandez of SCAD-Savannah (26:34). The course ran slow considering its long sandy trails. Embry-Riddle took first place in front of SCAD-Savannah (2nd) and South Carolina-Beaufort (3rd). Ave Maria finished 7th of the nine competing teams; besting St. Thomas University and Florida Memorial University. 72 male runners competed in the event.
Shawn Scanlan, a sophomore from Fort Myers, Florida, led Ave Maria with a 40th place finish in a time of 31:44. Charlie Sercer crossed second for the AMU men (45th, 33:00) and was followed by Daniel Nurse (55th, 35:25), Gino Finn (69th, 41:20) and David Bryant (71st, 42:55).
Two Ave Maria women ran in the women's 8 a.m. 5 kilometer event. Briana Loftus finished 53rd of 62 runners with a time of 30:39 and Leslie Delaney came in 56th with a 32:03 finish. Embry-Riddle took the women's event as well with a team score of 26. SCAD-Savannah placed second with 38 points despite having the event's top finisher, Melanie Novack who ran the course in 19:26.
