Oct. 28, 2016
CARY, N.C. – The Georgia Tech men’s and women’s cross country teams competed in the 2016 ACC Cross Country Championships on Friday morning, placing 8th and 14th respectively. The Yellow Jackets posted 12 career bests on the day.
“The men competed well today, maybe got out a little further behind than we wanted, but were strong over the last half of the race,” said head coach Alan Drosky. “The women are showing some progress, and while it didn’t show up in the overall team score today, it was a much better effort than last year.”
The women raced first in the 8k at WakeMed Soccer Park, home course of NC State. NC State grabbed the title on the women’s side. The Yellow Jackets were led by sophomore Amy Ruiz for the third time this season. She raced to a 45th place finish at a time of 21:17.8. Following Ruiz was Mary Prouty, finishing 63rd to nab 60 points for the Yellow Jacket with a time of 21:36.4.
Rounding out the top seven for Tech was Hailey Gollnick (21:53.7), Mary Claire Solomon (22:00.7), Hayley Keady (22:35.2) who made her 2016 debut in the championships, Haley Stumvoll (22:43.6) and Rebecca Dow (22:46.8). Ruiz, Prouty, Gollinick and Solomon all recorded career bests on the day and were the top-four finishers for Tech.
“We’re more aggressive, but we’ve got to keep working to hold on better,” said Drosky. “Today the women did a better job of running as a team and I’m looking forward to more improvement in our next competition.”
The men took on the 8k after, finishing 8th as a team. The men topped Pittsburgh, Notre Dame and Duke in the race. All eight of the men from Tech posted career bests on NC State’s home course. The Yellow Jackets were led once again by junior Nahom Solomon who raced to a 36th-place finish and a time of 24:15.3. Frank Pittman finished second among the Yellow Jackets and 43rd overall with a 24:23.6. There was less than a second of separation between Pittman and Alex Grady who crossed the line 44th and posted a career best time of 24:24.0. Matthew Munns topped his career best set at the 2015 ACC Championships with a time of 24:27.7 and a 49th-place finish.
Mitchell Sanders (24:34.3), Christian Bowles (24:48.5) and Avery Barlett (24:52.8) finished out the top seven for the Yellow Jackets. Tanner Shaw recorded a career best of 24:53.0 and a 72nd-place finish.
“With only twenty seconds separating our top five runners in the men, that was a much better team effort than our last race. We talked about that last night and the guys did a great job executing it today,” commented Drosky.
The Yellow Jackets will return to Tech to begin preparation for the NCAA South Regionals to take place on Nov. 11 in Tallahassee, Fla.
For the latest information on the Georgia Tech cross country and track & field teams, follow us on Twitter (@GT_TrackNField), Facebook (Georgia Tech Track & Field/Cross Country) or visit us atwww.ramblinwreck.com.
