Upstate Women 6th, Men 8th at Charlotte Invitational
9/28/2013 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
Charlotte Invite Women's Results (PDF) | Charlotte Invite Women's Results (HTML)
Charlotte Invite Men's Results (PDF) | Charlotte Invite Men's Results (HTML)
Charlotte, N.C. – In a field with nationally and regionally ranked teams, the USC Upstate women's team finished sixth and the men's team finished eighth in the Division I sections of the Charlotte Invitational Gold races Saturday morning at McAlpine Park.
The women's field ran a 6k, the first time Upstate has run the distance this season, and every Spartan turned in personal best times in the distance. Jasmine Polite led the way for the Spartans, finishing 24th with a time of 22:29.3. Anastasia Kolesnitchenko claimed 28th with time of 22:40.9. Erin Gethin was the third top Spartan in the meet with a time of 23:02.4. Molly Bliss was the fourth best Upstate runner with a time of 23:11.0 and was followed by Hannah Chaney (23:20.8), Janay Chisolm (23:53.8) and Nia Payne (24:06.2).
Mississippi State won the race with 47 points after placing the top two runners in the race. Emma Neigel won the race with a time of 21:24.0. Charlotte was second with 52 points and was followed in the Top 10 by North Florida (64), Davidson (107), Florida State (129), Upstate (186), Radford (219), Miami (222), Northern Kentucky (236) and Marshall (236).
Ross Oden, coming off his win at the Eye Opener meet on Sept. 6, led the Upstate men's team in the 8k Division I section of the meet. He finished 23rd with a season-best time of 26:05.5. Theodore Kountourogiannis was 29th with a time of 26:16.7, nearly 24 seconds better than his career-best time, and was followed on the Spartans by Andrew Kipchumba (26:21.2), Alex Love (27:02.4), Mark Rennix (27:10.5), Riley Doherty (27:34.6) and Spencer Nieto (29:54.1).
Mississippi State claimed the team championship in the Division I section of the Gold race with 34 points. Northern Kentucky and Charlotte tied for second with 93 points and was followed in the Top 10 by VMI (95), North Florida (122), Miami (141), Marshall (191), Upstate (192), Radford (198) and Tennessee Tech (242).
"All the of our women ran very well today, they turned in some great performances," said Upstate associate head coach Carson Blackwelder. "All of the girls ran a personal record and competed well. Our men did a good job of improving on their performances and beating people down the stretch. It is good to see improvement on both the men and women's side."
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