Oct. 13, 2017
Men’s Results | Women’s Results
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Georgia Tech men’s and women’s cross country wrapped up the regular season with an impressive showing at the Alabama Crimson Classic as the women took first place and the men finished third.
The women finished with 74 points, a full 50 points better than the next-highest finisher, Auburn. Mississippi State and Samford finished with 126 and 133 points, respectively, while host-team Alabama recorded 147 points for fifth place. Eighth-ranked in the USTFCCCA South, Tech downed No. 7 Alabama, No. 6 Auburn, No. 3 Florida State, while also topping Mississippi State, who entered ranked No. 29 in the country.
The men finished with 124 points, just 14 points shy of the first and second-place total of 110 for No. 22 Middle Tennessee and Alabama — MTSU won the tiebreaker to earn the team title. Auburn finished 10 points back from the Yellow Jackets for fourth while Belmont rounded out the top five with 138.
“What an exciting day for Georgia Tech cross country,” head coach Alan Drosky said. “One of our motto’s this whole season has been to compete at a whole other level, and today both teams did just that. The meet was a great preview for the NCAA South Regional with a lot of ranked teams and I think we exceeded expectations. Both teams are fit, hungry, competing hard, and racing intelligently.”
Amy Ruiz paced the Yellow Jackets with a seventh-place, 20:45.7 time, while Mary Prouty finished two spots back with a 20:49.3 time.
Hailey Gollnick finished 14th overall (20:59.6) in the field of 269 finishers while freshman Nicole Fegans (21:03.9) and Mary Claire Solomon (21:29.1) rounded out the first five with 16th and 28th finishes, respectively.
After pacing the women’s team, Amy Ruiz thought communication was 🔑 to the title pic.twitter.com/2KCHnHg61x
— GT Track & Field/XC (@GT_trackNfield) October 13, 2017
“What a great win for the women,” Drosky continued. “We believed we could compete with the best teams in the field and the women pulled out a huge victory. Amy and Mary are really finding their rhythm as collegiate runners and Hailey is getting stronger every meet. Nicole is still trying to find herself over the 6K distance but she is still running strong and will get there soon. And Mary Claire was fantastic, she was struggling a little in the middle of the race, but gathered herself together and fought her way back a few places. Behind our first five we had some great efforts as well, so it’s just rewarding to see the direction the team is headed.”
The men were led by Nahom Solomon, who placed sixth with a 23:56.4 time, while Christian Bowles (25:22.2), Avery Bartlett (25:23.8), Frank Pittman (25:24.4) and Matt Munns (25:24.9) ran a tight cluster, finishing 28th through 31st, respectively. The Jackets finished 16 out of 223 runners with five all coming in the top 30.
Nahom Solomon led the men to third place and was proud of the way the team battled (👀 the shoutout at the end) pic.twitter.com/80H4dMCEad
— GT Track & Field/XC (@GT_trackNfield) October 13, 2017
Drosky continued, “Nahom ran another outstanding race and really laid it on the line in racing up front with the leaders. The depth of the men’s team continues to impress, but if we are going to reach our end goal we have to get the group closer to Nahom. We need the group to trust in themselves a little more in the middle of the race. Today we went from seventh to third in the last mile of the race, but we have got to be stronger sooner, but still an overall great effort and a lot of positive momentum for the men.”
Georgia Tech cross country will now turn its training and preparation toward the ACC Championships in Louisville, Ky., on Oct. 27.
Alabama Crimson Classic — October 13, 2017
MEN: 1. Middle Tennessee St., 110; 2. Alabama, 110; 3. Georgia Tech, 123; 4. Auburn, 134; 5. Belmont, 138; 6. Texas A&M, 147; 7. North Florida, 155; 8. Samford, 193; 9. UT-Martin, 253; 10. UT-Arlington, 305; 11. Memphis, 333; 12. Troy, 351; 13. Oklahoma, 359; 14. Mississippi State, 370; 15. South Alabama, 382; 16. LSU, 397; 17. Stephen F. Austin, 446; 18. Chattanooga, 457; 19. Vanderbilt, 496; 20. UTRGV, 523; 21. SE Louisiana, 542; 22. Louisiana Tech, 550; 23. Lipscomb, 700; 24. Mercer, 737; 25. Alabama State, 805; 26. Jacksonville St., 828.
WOMEN: 1. Georgia Tech, 74; 2. Auburn, 124; 3. Mississippi State, 126; 4. Samford, 133; 5. Alabama, 147; 6. Texas A&M, 163; 7. Belmont, 234; 8. Oklahoma, 254; 9. North Florida, 281; 10. UAB, 316; 11. Southern Miss, 336; 12. South Carolina, 357; 13. UT-Martin, 380; 14. LSU, 390; 15. Florida State, 400; 16. Memphis, 408; 17. Middle Tennessee State, 411; 18. South Alabama, 413; 19. Stephen F. Austin, 425; 20. UT-Arlington, 489; 21. Chattanooga, 509; 22. Kennesaw State, 590; 23. Georgia Southern, 641; 24. Mercer, 707; 25. UTRGV, 756; 26. Alabama State, 781; 27. Lipscomb, 793; 28. SE Louisiana, 795; 29. Jacksonville St., 875; 30. Troy, 886.
For the latest information on the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, follow us on Twitter (@GT_TrackNField), Facebook (Georgia Tech Track & Field/Cross Country) or visit us at www.ramblinwreck.com.
