Cross Country Opens in Melbourne

Leesburg, Fla. – Cross Country is off and running, pun intended, with both the men's and women's teams getting the regular season schedule started at the East Florida State Fall Classic.

It was a little cooler temperatures at the start of Saturday's event, which took place on the campus of Eastern Florida State College. The first 5k/8k event of the year consisted of a two-loop course for the women's event and a three-loop course for the men's race. The terrain was made up of everything you could think of including grass, mud, rocks and roots coming out of the ground.

The women started at 8:00 am with more than 75 runners in all. Annagrace Weathers was the top finisher for the Lakehawks coming in 39^th overall, but 10^th among NJCAA participants, with a time of 23:11.0. Her teammate, Lily Novac crossed the finish line just 10 seconds later to come in 11^th. Solerys Torres Cardona rounded out LSSC's top three finishers placing 17^th in the JUCO results.

Eight NJCAA teams competed in the event with Lake-Sumter coming in fifth posting an average time of 24:14.9. "We have a very large women's team this year," said Head Coach, Cristy Snellgroves. "We are focusing on personal growth and individual development which will help create team success."   

On the men's side of the action, Colton Berquist wasted no time establishing himself as one of the Lakehawks top runners. The sophomore finished 18^th in the field of 75+, with a time of 26:52.4. Good enough for second place in the NJCAA individual results and the second best time in LSSC program history. Nikolas Gibson was the next member of the LSSC men's team to cross the finish line, placing 40^th overall, but fifth among NJCAA runners. Caleb Melendez and Santos Aguilar finished back-to-back, just four seconds apart, in that order.

Overall, the men's team took fourth in the event, but finished as the top NJCAA team, beating out Eastern Florida by just four points. "We are very excited to have such a talented men's team this year," said Snellgroves. "They have bonded together and have focused on creating a culture of success." She went on to say, "The Lakehawk Men can be very proud of their performance this week and we will spend time over the next couple of weeks improving race strategy and fitness."

Both the men's and the women's teams will head to Daytona Beach next Saturday for the Embry-Riddle Cross Country Classic.