Tampa Women Finish Second at Florida State Invitational
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - The eighth-ranked University of Tampa women's cross country team registered an impressive second-place showing at the FSU Seminole Invite with a second-place finish among 13 teams. The Spartan men also ran, finishing fourth of 11 teams.
In the women's race, the University of South Florida took first place, followed by Tampa, Central Florida, Florida State and Embry-Riddle. The men's race was championed by Embry-Riddle as the top five also included Florida Southern, North Florida, Tampa and Florida Atlantic.
Jessica Forrester turned in the top performance for Tampa's women with a third place finish in the 111 person field. She turned in a time of 17:57.90. Teammate Alysha Duffy joined Forrester in the top 10 with a sixth place finish while finishing the race in 18:18.12.
Freshman Katie O'Brien placed 18th overall (18:52.06) as Heather Nicolosi (18:55.93) and Michelle Gabrielle (19:00.48) rounded out UT's top five with 21st and 24th place finishes respectively. For the second straight week, UT ran without Jessica Butler and Paige Williams.
Also running for UT's women were Dara Fox (29th), Maggie Redmond (32nd), Sarah Nelson (36th) and Leela Hadsock (44th).
In the men's race, Tony Nicolosi was the first Spartan to cross the finish line, doing so in 25:50.04 to finish fifth overall. Chris Catanach placed 16th after a time of 26:25.95 as the remainder of Tampa's top-five consisted of Kevin Lane (23rd, 26:44.37), Jeremy Lautzenheiser (33rd, 26:57.80) and Gordon Wright (43rd, 27:17.76).
Other UT runners who competed in the men's event included Jordan Bass (54th) and Matt Altimari (55th).
Tampa is back in action on Sat., Oct. 11 when it runs in the Disney Invite at the Wide World of Sports in Kissimmee.