Sept. 2, 2017
THE FLATS – Georgia Tech men’s and women’s cross country broke out of the gates of their new season in a big way, both taking home the title in the Jacksonville State Open on Friday night.
“That was an exciting start to the season and we were pleased with what we saw from both teams,” head coach Alan Drosky said. “The upperclassmen were all solid and the freshman, who traveled on their own to the meet and competed unattached, ran very well. We’ll add some of them to the lineup going forward and when we’re at full strength, we think we have an opportunity to be really good. Nahom Solomon for the men and freshman Nicole Fegans, while unattached, for the women, both looked superb in winning the individual titles. All in all, a very promising start to the season but there is still a lot of work to do and a lot of areas we can improve on.”
As a group, the women finished in first with a total time of 1:13:45.70 and an average time of 14:45.14 in the 4K event, while the men placed first with a total time of 1:16:40.30 and an average time of 15:20.06 in the 5K event.
Leading the way for the Yellow Jackets, five runners placed in the top 10 for the women, including Amy Ruiz and Haley Anderson, who took home the top spots. Ruiz had the fastest finish overall (14:20.50) while Anderson placed second with 14:39.50.
Mary Claire Solomon (14:40.30) finished fourth overall while Rebecca Dow (14:57.90) finished sixth. Kristin Fairey’s time of 15:07.10 placed her 10th in the race.
Freshman Nicole Fegans, who ran unattached, had the fastest time in the White Division, claiming the top spot with a 14:06.40 time.
In the men’s event, Tech owned event, placing runners in the first six spots and seven in the top 10 overall. Nahom Solomon finished with the top time (14:58.10), while Matthew Munns placed second with 15:20.40.
Alex Grady (15:25.60), Ryan Peck (15:26.60) and Avery Bartlett (Tallahassee, Fla./Chiles) (15:29.60) rounded out the top 5 for the race, with Tanner Shaw, placing sixth with 15:30.20.
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