Braves end cross country at Lander

By Myra Frederick
Sports Editor

UNCP's cross-country team’s season ended on Oct. 23 at the Peach Belt Conference Championship at Lander University.

The Braves finished the championship in seventh place. They beat Georgia College and State University and Francis Marion. Kennesaw State University won the men's championship division.

Braves Head Coach Larry Rodgers said that the men ran fairly well considering the competition they were up against.

“I think that with the talent we had this year, we did pretty well,” Rodgers said.

Junior Jeriah Griswold finished the championship in 19th place with a time of 27:14. Giovanni Bilotta, a sophomore, finished in 25th place with a time of 27:36. Freshman Justin Gordon had a time of 28:25 and came in 32nd place. Junior Shawn Sledge and freshman Tyler Keith also ran for UNCP with respective times of 29:03 and 29:07.

“Our runners ran good, just not enough to place higher,” Rodgers said.

According to Rodgers, there is a lot of stiff competition in the PBC. There are a number of more experienced runners in the PBC.

They are both experienced in running and in age. They are from overseas and have been running a lot longer than some of UNCP’s runners, Rodgers said.

“It's hard for them to compete against older runners,” Rodgers said.

There are no seniors on the men’s team and the top runners for the women’s team are juniors and a sophomore.

The Lady Braves closed out the championship in seventh place. They beat out USC Aiken, Georgia College and State University and Augusta State.

Adriana Yanez, a sophomore, finished in 21st place out of the 65 female runners. She had a time of 20:05. Freshman Jamie Vogt finished in 29th place with a time of 20:37.

Seniors Chika Okonkwo and Barbara Jacobson, junior Tiffany Justice and sophomore Katerina Matousova also ran for the Lady Braves. They finished in less than 25 minutes. Four of the ladies beat their personal best times' records.

“We thought ahead that we would finish in 7th. We wanted at least 6th, but we got 7th,” Rodgers said of the women's run.

Rodgers said that he was pleased with this season’s results considering the talent that all of the Braves possessed and the talent that was in the PBC.

The coaching staff was not remarkably surprised with the running times of the athletes. Rodgers said that he could pretty much see where his runners were at the beginning of the season.

“We did have all our runners, except maybe for about two, to improve their personal best records,” Rodgers said.

For next season, Rodgers and his coaching staff will work on recruiting some more runners to go along with their returning runners next year.

“The key in cross-country is you got to have a minimum of five runners running close to the same time,” Rodgers said. If the first three or four runners run close times, then they can place higher, both individually and as a team.

So, with the end of the cross-country season and the improvements of the runners, the Braves, with the coaching staff, will soon begin preparing for the 2005 track season.

A majority of the runners will be participating in track and field.