Category | Sports

Cross Country teams sweep Disney races

Published on October 13, 2009 by Justin Hobday

Mackenzie Howe remained undefeated for the season and five members from the men’s team finished in the top 20 to help the Owls sweep the Walt Disney World Cross Country Classic.

Photo provided by KSU SID From left to right: Jaakko Nieminen, Nabil Hamid, Scott Burley and Piotr Witczak.

Howe ran the women’s 5K event in 18:07.6 to win her fifth event of the season.

“I thought my time could have been a little quicker, but with the sandy surface of the course and the high temperature and humidity, it affected how quick we could run,” said Howe. “One runner was able to stay with me most of the way so knowing the course, and where I needed to save energy for a final kick, really helped me. I knew this would be a tough meet, and I’m glad I was able to come out of it with a win.”

Britany Reily finished in 13th place with a time of 19:24, and Erin Sutton boosted the Owls with an eighth place finish in her first action since 2007. The former all-conference selection put in an encouraging time of 19:09 after spending the first half of the season out with an injury.

“Having Erin back was so huge for us today. Between Mackenzie, Erin, and Britany (Reily), we now have an incredibly solid top-three,” Sims said. “I’m really encouraged by how Lorena Jaime has done in the last couple of meets, including today. It will be herself, Soibhan Wolcott, Caitlin German, Kristen Gibson and Katie Charles that will determine what we can do at the conference meet. The deeper we continue to be as a team, the harder it will be for our opponents to pick up points on us.”

Scott Burley led the men once again with a second place finish in the 8K events to help the Owls win their third meet out of five on the season. Freshman Nabil Hamid once again finished right behind Burley with a time of 26:04 for third place.

“This is great for the squad, to get a win like this, especially since this felt like a dress rehearsal for the [Atlantic Sun Championship],” Burley said. “I felt really good today. It was nice to run with Nabil, we really worked well together the whole way through. It’s great to be able to go home with a Mickey Mouse trophy.”

Jaakko Nieminen, Piotr Witczak and Peikko Solla placed strong for the Owls as well with finishes of 12th, 14th and 16th.

“I always knew that our runners were Mickey Mouse runners, and of course here in Disney, that’s a very positive thing,” Sims joked. “In all seriousness, getting a performance like that from Scott is a huge psychological boost for everyone. On top of that, Nabil did today exactly what we all knew he came here to do, and that was to compete with the best of them. This was a great performance for all of our guys, and they should feel good about themselves.”

The Owls’ next event is the inaugural Owl Invitational on Friday, Oct. 23. The meet takes place at Noonday Park, and will be the final tune-up before the conference championships.

Content provided by ksuowls.com.