Spartan Women Finish Second At Mountain Dew Invitational
GAINESVILLE, Fla. - The University of Tampa women's cross country team posted an impressive showing at the annual University of Florida Mountain Dew Invitational with a second place finish. The UT men also competed, taking the ninth overall spot.
Tampa finished behind Florida in the women's race as the Gators claimed their fifth consecutive meet championship. The Spartans outpaced South Florida, Central Florida and Jacksonville, who made up the top five. The 23 team field also included North Florida, Florida Atlantic, Florida Gulf Coast, Miami, Florida State, Florida International and Stetson.
Florida also won the men's race, finishing ahead of Embry-Riddle, North Florida, Florida Southern and Florida Atlantic. 18 teams competed as the Spartans finished ahead of notable opponents including Miami, Florida Gulf Coast, Florida International, Florida A&M and Stetson.
Jess Butler led the Spartan women with an 11th place finish to go with a time of 18:23.48. Heather Nicolosi finished 18th (18:43.98) and Sara Nelson was 21st (18:46.85) overall. Paige Williams and Kaia Hampton rounded out the top five for Tampa with 23rd and 24th place finishes respectively.
Other Spartans who competed were Dara Fox (38th), Alysha Duffy (41st), Katie O'Brien (51st), Michelle Gabrielle (56th), Maggie Redmond (84th), Mutinta Shaba (92nd), Stefany Sanchez-Smith (106th) and Amber Eisenberg (193rd). A total of 227 female runners competed in the race.
In men's action, Chris Catanach led Tampa with a 24th place showing and a time of 26:17.00. Lewis Price followed Catanach with a time of 27:28.80 to place 61st. Greg Moore (78th), Mike Leone (87th) and Charles Toledo (101st) made up UT's top five.
Tory Webb (110th), Steve Cain (114th), Kevin Harley (133rd), Joe Ranalli (152nd), Raymon Cheng (174th), Mike Maerz (184th), Steven Mott (189th) and Nick Demilio (198th) and ran for the Spartans.
Tampa is back in action on Saturday when it competes in the Pre-Nationals in Evansville, Ind. Fans may sign up for eScores to receive free text message alerts following all UT events. UT athletics can also be found on Twitter (www.twitter.com/utspartans) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/tampaspartans).