Wally Pendergrass
Staff Writer
The Trojans’ cross country teams participated in the Mountain Dew Invitational at Gainesville, Florida, which was hosted by the University of Florida on Sept. 20. The men’s team placed eighth, and the women’s team finished 11th.
The event featured 29 colleges and universities, with over 250 runners competing in both the men’s and women’s events. The women’s event was a 5K run, and the men’s meet was an 8K run.
The women’s team was led by sophomore Mikayla Hodges, who finished the 5K in 30th with a time of 18:20.52. Junior Julia Ostendorf finished with a time of 18:55.62, while sophomore Samantha Smith and freshman Sarah
Zylstra finished in 19:15.36 and 19:20.86, respectively.
The women finished in 11th with a total time of 1:35:27.42, for an average of 19:05.49. The Trojans finished ahead of three teams, including the University of Miami.
Freshman Dylan Ogburn had the best finish for the men, finishing 48th with a time of 27:00.70. Fellow freshman Joe Giese finished with a time of 27:17.42.
The men’s team finished the entire event in eighth, beating former conference opponent Florida Atlantic, as well as three other schools. The Trojans had a total time of 2:18:16.67 for an average of 27:39.34.
The Trojans will be running again on Saturday, Oct. 4, in a meet at Jacksonville State University.
