UNCP Braves do well in Pembroke Invitational

By Marques Goodwin
Staff Writer

Cross-Country Head Coach Larry Rodgers with years of experience, 24 years, under his belt led his Braves into the Pembroke Invitational held Saturday, Sept. 11.

Last year in the Invitational, Pembroke placed sixth, in both the men and women’s overall standings. Already this year the men have garnered up a fourth place finish in the Gamecock Invitational at the University of South Carolina. The women finished sixth respectively at the same event.

This year should be a great year for the Pembroke cross-country teams.

Former Pembroke cross-country runners Jeff Moody and Mike Jiminez believe that this year’s cross-country team has a lot of potential and are very capable of winning this year.

“This team has a lot of character, and if they continue to work hard they will do a great job this year,” they said.

Leading the way on the women’s side are veterans junior Tiffany Justice and seniors Barbara Jacobson and Chika Okonkwo. On the men’s side are senior Phillip Harley, junior Jeriah Griswold and last year’s top runner for the Braves junior Shawn Sledge.

Also looking to make some noise for the Braves are freshmen and transfer runners, Justin Gordon, Tyler Keith, Justin McEntire, Joshua Wooten, and Giovanni Bilotta. And on the lady’s side sophomore Katerina Matousova from the Czech Republic, freshmen Jamie Vogt and Gladys Walcott and sophomore transfer from East Carolina University Adri-ana Yanez all tried to make some major contributions to the team at this meet, as well as for the remainder of the year.

With the addition of these athletes and the returning athletes, the Braves are hoping to make some powerful moves in the conference standings this year.

At the Invitational on Saturday at Luther Britt Park in Lumberton some signs of that greatness was shown. Although the men’s and women’s teams finished sixth and fourth out of seven teams in each race, a few of the Braves on each side turned in some exceptional times and finished high in the overall standings.

Grabbing first place honors on the men’s side with a score of 46 were the Knight’s of St. Andrews College. And for the women, Wingate University received top honors with a score of 53.

Jeriah Griswold finished 12th overall for the Braves and turned in a time of 28.15.

Teammates Givonni Bilotta and Shawn Sledge also turned in good times, which placed them in the top 30.

Adriana Yanez finished 5th overall in the women’s race with a time of 20:54, a little more than a minute behind first place finisher Kelly Chaplin of St. Andrews who ran a time of 19.50.

Lady Brave Jamie Vogt also ran well turning in a time of 21.13, landing her a spot in the top ten.

Rodgers was pleased with the Braves’ run, as well as the team’s overall effort and the outcome of the race.

“I’m pleased with the team’s performance. We had a few people out for different reasons but we still ran hard, both the men and women,” Rodgers said.

Next up for the Braves will be the Wingate Invitational held Saturday, Sept. 18 in Wingate, N.C. Race times are scheduled for the women to run first at 9:30 a.m. and then the men will run at 10:30 a.m.