Tampa Women Finish Third at Mountain Dew Invite

Gainesville, Fla. - The University of Tampa men's and women's cross country teams each competed in the Mountain Dew Invite, which was hosted by the University of Florida. The Spartans finished third overall in the women's race and eighth in the men's event.

The Spartan women turned in a top performance, finishing with 132 points behind Florida and Florida International. Among the 20 teams who participated, Tampa placed higher than Division I programs including South Florida, Florida Atlantic, Central Florida, North Florida, Jacksonville, Miami, Stetson and Florida A&M.

Tampa was led by Laura Woznicki, who turned in an eighth place finish with a time of 17:54.80. Freshman Paige Williams was the second Spartan to cross the finish line with a time of 18:34.51. Other Tampa runners included Alysha Duffy (40th, 19:13.39), Michelle Gabrielle (51st, 19:23.63), Jessica Forrester (52nd, 19:26.92), Leela Hadsock (55th, 19:31.93), Dara Fox (63rd, 19:38.08), Sara Nelson (65th, 19:40.91) and Erin Heeder (77th, 19:55.51).

UT's men turned in an eighth place finish as David Forry's 17th place finish was the top Spartan performance. Forry completed the course with a time of 25:20.39. Running against the state's top talent, Tampa outperformed notable teams including South Florida, Florida A&M, Stetson and Florida Atlantic.

The other Tampa men who ran in the event were Jake Bess (60th, 26:48.54), Tony Nicolosi (66th, 27:00.18), Jeremy Lautzenheiser (68th, 27:03.25), Scott Cohen (72nd, 27:15.51), Chris Catanach (96th,, 28:20.38), and Steven Cain (113th, 29:17.51).