University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
UNC Asheville
Charlotte
Bulldog Cross Country Squads Compete at Charlotte Invitational
10.02.2009 | Cross Country
By David Pickett
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - The UNC Asheville men's and women's cross country teams performed well on Friday afternoon at the Charlotte Invitational, held at McAlpine Park. The women's team finished 11th out of 23 teams, while the men's team finished in ninth place out of 21 teams.
Several individuals improved on their season best since the Big South Preview two weeks ago.
Bulldog head coach Jesse Norman was satisfied with how well both teams competed.
"It was a great effort by both teams today," stated Norman. "We had a lot of great individual performances from a lot of different people. We especially had some great performances by our freshmen class."
In the team competition, the men's team finished with 257 points. The women's team finished with 323 points just behind Gardner-Webb with 320 points.
Individually the men were paced by sophomore Eliud Chirchir. The Kenyan native ran a strategic race in the 8K to place 26th overall. In the process, Chirchir improved his season best to 25:54. Chirchir was just .05 off his personal best of 25:49.
Freshman Melanie Kulesz led the pack for the Bulldog women. Kulesz took 28th overall in the 5k. Kulesz ran a season-best 18:42.
Chirchir and Kulesz weren't the only Bulldogs improving on their season bests. On the men's side, sophomore Kent Rankin ran a season and personal best of 26:27 in the 8K. Rankin's teammates, Sam Maynard (26:34), Jay Barringer (27:28), Adam Vick (28:32) and Adam Schnapp, (29:16) also ran season bests.
On the women's side, freshman Clair Powell ran a season and personal best of 19:10 in the 5K. Powell's teammate, Alyska Kalmeije, also ran a season best and equaled her personal best of 19:43. In addition to Powell and Kalmeije, Kylie Smith (20:12), Rachael Ambrosia (20:17), Katie Olert (20:25), Erin Putnam (20:33), Mackenzie Wheaton (20:39), Jennifer Black (21:43), Allison Shields (23:04) and Aurelia Baca (23:59) also ran season bests.
The Charlotte Invitational played host to 473 participants from 23 different schools. Gardner-Webb, Radford, UNC Asheville and Winthrop represented the Big South Conference.
"In the next couple weeks, our main focus is learning how to run together as one unit." commented Norman.
Both teams will be back in action again at the Blue Ridge Mountain Open hosted by Appalachian State on October 16.
Players Mentioned
