Chattanooga junior Makenzie Jones;
photo by Chattanooga Athletics
Chattanooga junior Makenzie Jones widened her lead with two kilometers to go at the Berry College Invitational on a windy, overcast morning on the Berry campus to lead the Mocs to the title for a second straight season. The men, paced by sophomore Jonathan Boyd, took third.
Jones ran with the front grouping over the first third of the race then led the lead pack over the second third. By the final third, she pulled away and crossed the finish line nearly half a minute ahead of her nearest competitor at 22:14.71.
However, her teammates weren’t far behind.
All five scoring runners finished in the Top 14 with freshman Lesley Green placing third overall with a time of 22:39.97 in the first 6K of her collegiate career. Hannah Caldwell legged it out for a seventh place finish with Julia Henderson (11) and Mattie Parker (14) rounding out the scoring for UTC.
The Mocs scored 26 points for the win followed by Emory with 48 points. Host Berry was third with 86 points and Sewanee was fourth with 138 points.
In the men’s race, Jonathan Boyd paced the Mocs with a 12th place finish at 26:16.73 after hanging back early and making his way to the front. Ryan Gebelein has slowly rejoined the Mocs on the course this season after injury sidelined him last year. He was 18th overall with a time of 26:28.03.
Jake Etheridge was the third UTC runner across the line followed by Nathan Watson and Conner Duncan rounded out the Mocs’ Top Five.
Chattanooga will begin preparation for the Southern Conference Championships in two weeks. The race will be hosted by ETSU in Johnson City on Saturday, November 2.