Both Spartans Teams Compete at Cross Country Pre-Regionals
BRANDON, Fla. - The University of Tampa men's and women's cross country teams both competed at the Pre-Regionals, which was hosted by UT at Dover Trails. The Spartans women finished second while the men were fifth.
The men's 5-mile race started the day, with the University of South Florida winning the Division I and overall crown. The top Division II team was Florida Southern, followed by West Florida, Nova Southeastern, Florida Tech and Tampa. Flagler's Corey Mundy won the individual championship with a time of 26:48.20.
Geremy DeWitt paced the Spartans with a 32nd-place finish and time of 27:56.40. Lars Benner followed in 37th place with a time of 2:03.90. Matt Hoffman (41st, 28:16.90), Cory Munsch (48th, 28:35.40) and Mike Zwijacz (52nd, 28:51.20) followed to make up the UT top five.
Also running for Tampa's men were Jessie Boria (55th, 29:05.10), Steven Dennig (61st, 29:21.20), Aaron Oldanie (66th, 29:42.80), Brendan McGonagle (69th, 29:54.10), Kyle Taylor (78th, 31:06.30) and Mike Gibson (88th, 31:52.00).
South Florida also won the women's 5K, as Flagler was the top Division II team. Tampa followed in second place as the top-five also included Nova Southeastern, West Florida and Florida Tech. UT alum Heather Nicolosi won the race as an unattached runner with a time of 18:25.30 as USF's Kelli Williams was the top collegiate runner at 18:51.00.
Chantalle Blundell led Tampa's women, finishing fifth overall after clocking a time of 18:58.80. Courtney Ragan was 11th at 19:25.60 while Claudia Cancello was 14th at 19:35.50. Danielle Kissel made it four Spartans in the top-20 as she was 20th with a time of 19:47.50.
Tampa's women were also represented by Vanessa Righeimer (23rd, 19:58.30), Kelly Hagan (24th, 19:58.60), Ronni Mercier (27th, 20:07.70), Elaina Cancello (28th, 20:08.70), Sarah Waller (30th, 20:22.70), Brianna Jackson (33rd, 20:32.30), Aimee Epps (52nd, 21:25.30), Jessie Luttenschlager (53rd, 21:27.50), Kaitlyn Martin (57th, 21:45.20), Iolani Scanlan (61st, 22:07.60), Tori Ehrhardt (62nd, 22:12.20), Ariana Sotorpolis (65th, 22:14.30) and Rose Bastian (67th, 22:19.70).
Tampa returns to action on Saturday, October 5 at the Louisville Invitational.
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