Posted: Oct 13, 2017
For the first time in school history, the men's cross country team hauled in their first team title at the Central Georgia Tech Invitational, while the women's team all finished within the top ten of their field.
Men's Results (6k Race) Women's Results (5k Race)
Luis Perez 1st 22:31 Madison Guider 1st 20:33
Blaine Boley 2nd 23:26 Matilda Lee 2nd 21:16
Tyler Hollis 4th 23:59 Whitney McConnell 5th 23:07
Austin Tate 5th 24:03 Emily Colbaugh 6th 23:46
Parker Tullier 7th 25:22
Dillon Clark 8th 25:55
Blaine Boley of the men's team said, "It's a tremendous honor to be able to carve out our own piece of history here at Cleveland State. It was a great feeling knowing we went into the invitational ready to race and that we came home with the hardware." Luis Perez, the overall men's winner, said, "It's extremely satisfying knowing I played a role in winning our first ever title and I'm proud of the hard work we as a team have put in."
This is the first-ever title for the inaugural cross country team. Matilda Lee of the women's team said that just being a part of this program is a huge honor, let alone winning the first ever title. She went on to say, "It's awesome to be apart of the beginning foundation of this program and to help it grow into a team that will be successful year in and year out."
Head Coach David Kyle said, "The course looked good, there were some hills and other challenges but nothing too brutal. Our runners definitely liked the terrain and I think their results speak to how well they responded to this race." He continued, "We were facing some solid competition at this meet, programs that have been around for a long time so it was a big accomplishment for us to go in there and win it. This gives us a lot of momentum going into our next race."
As the end of the season comes to close, the expectations for the Cleveland State runners are starting to shift. With fast times being even more important at these final races, individual performance is at the forefront. Luis Perez commented on this and said, "Personally, I'd really like to drop my times by a minute or two. Obviously, I want my team as a whole to do well but my main focus right now is my own personal time." Madison Guider also added, "We're a close team and we definitely want to see each other succeed but with nationals coming up it's more important now for us to focus on our individual times."
Next up the cross country team will travel to Rome, Georgia to race in the Berry College Invitational on Saturday, October 14th at 9:00 AM EST.