Saturday, October 17, 2009

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The University of North Florida women and men finished first and second, respectively, in the 16th Annual Sodexho Hatter Invitational on Friday afternoon.  The meet was the final regular season meet of the 2009 cross country season two weeks before the Atlantic Sun Championships which will also be hosted by Stetson.

“We started out the week with three goals,” said head coach Mark Van Alstyne. “The first was to win, the second was to develop a feel for how this course will race in two weeks at the A-Sun Championships and continue to run as a team, keeping our packs together.”

The women showed their resilience to stay together in the end, finishing four runners in the top 14.  Freshman Shelby Kittrell led the Ospreys to their first win of the season, finishing third individually out of the 174 runners. There was a total of 20 teams competing with 12 Division I schools. 

Sophomore Erin Heasely put up her best finish and second best time of the season against the entire field with her eighth place finish in 18:13.  Freshman Meggie Emons (19:02) and senior Hillary Adams (19:20) also put together a big finish, placing 12th and 14th, respectively.

The women finished ahead of USF, FAU and UCF.  UNF was also able to edge out A-Sun rivals East Tennessee State, Florida Gulf Coast and Stetson.