Tampa Women Take Third Straight SSC Cross Country Championship
LAKELAND, Fla. - The University of Tampa women's cross country team placed seven runners in the top 10 to earn its third straight Sunshine State Conference Championship. The Spartans have now won seven of the last eight women's titles. The Spartan men also finished fourth in their race.
Tampa had a team score of 21, while Florida Southern had 69 to edge Florida Tech by two points for the runner-up spot. Nova Southeastern was fourth with 97 points, followed by Saint Leo in fifth with 128 and Rollins in sixth with 147.
Florida Tech's Sara Trane became the first SSC women's individual champion not from Tampa or FSC since Suzanne Ernst of North Florida won in 1996.
The next four finishers were all Spartans. Tampa's Jess Butler was second (21:31.65), Heather Nicolosi was third (21:55.12), Dara Fox was fourth (22:00.73), and Alysha Duffy was fifth (22:01.08). Southern's Carolyne Kwambai placed sixth in a time of 22:10.16. A trio of UT runners followed, with Sarah Nelson seventh (22:37.80), Paige Williams eighth (22:45.28) and Kaia Hampton ninth (22:49.64). FSC's Katie Barrese was 10th in 23:03.43. The top ten runners comprised the all-championship team.
Greg Moore led UT's men as the junior turned in a 16th place performance after running a time of 26:55.00. Freshman Charles Toledo (27:09.55), Chris Catanach (27:43.54), Tory Webb (27:46.41) and Kevin Harley (27:57.53) compiled UT's top five for the men.
Tampa now advances to the postseason where it will host and compete in the NCAA II South Regional on Sat., Nov. 7 at Dover Trails.
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