Dalton State cross country teams are traveling to the Mercer Runfit Sports Invitational in Macon this weekend for Saturday morning runs.
The 8K for men and 5K for women will be held at the Georgia Children’s Home campus, 4690 Mumford Road, in Macon.
‘We will drive down Saturday morning, very early,” said Dalton State cross country coach Margie Bruner.
It will be a couple of weeks between competitions, but Bruner said the team has been preparing to run. “”We are coming off of two weeks of hard running,” she said. “The kids are tired, but ready to race.”
Mercer University cross country coach Ryan Bailey says teams scheduled for the event are all from Georgia.
Dalton State (Dalton), Armstrong Atlantic State University (Savannah), Brewton-Parker College (Mt. Vernon) Central Georgia Technical College (Macon) Gordon State College (Barnesville), Morehouse College (Atlanta), Oglethorpe University (Atlanta), Point University (West Point), Reinhardt University (Waleska) Savannah College of Art & Design (Atlanta), South Georgia State (Douglas), and the University of West Georgia (Carrollton)
The Roadrunners saw Armstrong Atlantic back on September 13. DS men finished second in the 8K Bobcat Invitational to AASU’s third. The Pirates’ Pablo Salcedo Castro had an individual winning time of 29:09. Dalton’s Paul Patterson was close behind at 29:23.
The Lady Roadrunners were third in Milledgeville. Natalie Espinoza-Hensley led DS runners with a 5K time of 20:31.
Last Saturday, AASU finished second in a seven-team 8K field at the Columbia (SC) International University Invitational. Four Pirate runners were in the top ten, led by Alex Martinez at 29:16:27.
Brewton Parker ran, but didn’t place at Georgia College and State University, but Jordan Weaver was the men’s leader at 34:46:2. Brewton-Parker’s Allison Mangham was 15th for the women at 23:16 (5K)
The Morehouse College men’s team has finished second in their two previous meets. They lost on September to 14 to the hosts, the University of Alabama Huntsville, in the Fleet Feet Sports/Earl Jacoby Meet.
On September 7, the Tigers were at Georgia Southwestern University for the Remembrance Run. Dahir Mohamed led the way for Morehouse in both meets. His time of 26:10:28 in Americus is his best so far.
Point University’s men finished last in the Gulf Coast Stampede in Pensacola, Fla., but their Jordan Dunwoody had an 8K time of 29:11. Dunwoody ran a 30:18 and Point was second out of a four team field at the Darton Invitational in Albany, Ga.
The women were fourth out of 12 teams in Pensacola and won the Darton Invitational. Point had seven runners in the Darton top 10. The women were led by Suzanne Marquez with a time of 20:29. She was 13th in the Gulf Coast Stampede at 20:18.
Reinhardt University teams have competed in the Northwest Georgia Technical College Invitational on September 6 and the
Furman Cross Country Classic on September 14.
The Reinhardt men won the opener and Alex Garcia finished second for individual honors with an 8K time of 30:16. The women were second. Jazzmine Gonzalez finished the 5K at 24:21.
The men were 20th out of 25 teams at Furman. Garcia improved his time to 27:52:40. The women were last in a 23-team field.
The University of West Georgia Wolves finished fourth in the 6K Jacksonville State University (Al.) Strut. The Wolves were led by Sam Todd’s 18:28:90. He was 13th. The Lady Wolves dominated their opener with five runners in the top 12 at JSU. Tiffany Womack led UWG women with a 4K time of 15:40:89.
UWG teams were way back of the pack at the September 20th Georgia State University Invitational, held at Nash Farm Battlefield Park in Hampton, Ga. Todd had a good 8K time of 29:53:89. Womack’s 4K was 16:24:65.