Daytona Beach, Fla. – The men's and women's Lake-Sumter State College cross country teams are off and running in their inaugural seasons.
Run the Beach Relay was the first stop of competition for the programs. The event featured Daytona State, Florida State College at Jacksonville, Pasco-Hernando State College, Seminole State College and LSSC. As you can assume, the race took place on the sandy beaches of Daytona with the men running six miles and the women running four miles in teams of two while alternating each mile. Typically, cross country events use a team's top five runners to determine the team score, the Run the Beach Relay used each team's top three pairs to be counted.
Seminole State took home first place in pairs as well as total team score on the men's side. Lake-Sumter's top finishers were Nicholas Khan and Alexander Croy who finished fifth with a time of 32:34. Finishing behind their teammates by one second, the combo of Adolfo Saucedo-Flores and William Troupe came in sixth. As a whole, the team finished third in the event and had three sets of runners finish inside the top 10 out of 17.
On the women's side, Pasco-Hernando took the top spot with their runners finishing first, second and fifth. LSSC only had two sets of runners competing which did not allow them to finish with a total team score. Neelyam Lugo and Kyja Williams completed their four mile run in 30:42 to finished 10th. Isabel Panganiban and Brianna Mitchell finished a couple minutes behind their teammates at 32:31 for 14th in the group.
"Our athletes showed grit and determination on a very challenging course run on the beach," Head Coach, Cristy Snellgroves said. "The men were competitive amongst some of the best runners in the state while the women really pushed themselves and showed great improvement over the last few weeks." Snellgroves added, "I was most impressed by the camaraderie and enthusiasm our athletes showed as they represented Lake-Sumter for the first time on the regular season stage."
The next stop for cross country will be Gainesville on September 14, for the Mountain Dew Invitational.