#TCCXC: Guest lowers men’s 8K mark at FSU Invite
WATCH: #TCCXC recaps the FSU Invitational
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (October 6, 2017) – Tallahassee Community College's cross country team returned to Apalachee Regional Park early Friday morning for the annual FSU Invitational.
The Eagles got their first experience at the ARP on September 2 in the Big Bend XC Invite. Friday's event was a significant step up in competition for both teams, and for the Eagle men, it was their first 8000-meter run on the course.
The men ran to a 10th-place finish in the College Division, finishing with 298 points in the scoring.
Joshua Guest led the Tallahassee quintet, finishing 67th out of 91 runners in the College Division and 108th out of 139 male runners overall. His time of 29:42.7 bettered Gatlin Nennstiel's previous school record in the 8000-meter by four seconds.
All five male runners lowered their time from the previous 8000-meter race at the Mountain Dew Invitational on September 23.
Kelvin Brown saw the biggest improvement, shaving more than four minutes from his previous time to run a 34:59.1, fourth-best among the Eagles' runners on Friday.
Travis Parks followed Guest across the finish line, running a 30:42.0, a 1:07 improvement. Tunde Azikwe finished in 32:56.1, an improvement of 2:08, and Louis Cordero ran a 35:00.1, bettering his time by 1:36.
For the Tallahassee women, Friday was another opportunity to run against Region 8 foes Pasco-Hernando State College, Florida State College at Jacksonville and Chipola College.
The Eagles finished second among the two-year programs and 12th overall in the College division with 351 points.
Meagan Giddens was the team's top runner on Friday, finishing the 5000-meter race in 20:46.5. Though two seconds off her season-best time, it was 26 seconds faster than when she ran the course on September 2.
Giddens placed 41st out of 116 runners in the College Division and 90th overall out of 190 participants.
Three of Tallahassee's five runners posted season-best times and all four who ran the September 2 event saw improvement on the clock.
Olnick Duverge was the next Eagle to cross the line, finishing in a season-best 23:05.8, an improvement of 2:23 from September 2.
Rachel Williams also posted her fastest time of the season, a 24:39.3, 28 seconds faster than her previous best and 2:56 faster than September 2.
Alexis McElroy crossed the finish line immediately behind Williams with a time of 24:43.7. She did not run on September 2.
Ashley Maxwell's time of 28:14.6 was 1:44 better than September 2.
