Women Finish 1st Overall at USC Upstate

Saturday, October 15

Spartanburg, S.C.

Mercer University

USC Upstate Invitational

10/15/2022 2:03:00 PM | Men's Cross Country, Women's Cross Country

SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The Mercer cross country dominated in the USC Upstate Invational today against multiple SoCon foes. The women finished 1st overall with a total of 48 points and the men finished 3rd with 64 points.

WOMEN'S RACE (5K)
The women averaged 18:50 for the fastest time ever recorded at the Miliken course and 3rd fastest in school history. This is the Lady Bears' first invitational win since the 2020 season.

"I could not be more proud of the women's group today. The women really came together for a full team effort. We knew to try and pull off a top 3 team finish and ideally win we would have to have a very tight group towards the front," said Coach Hayman. "The women executed the race perfectly with an aggressive start to put themselves in the top 10 individuals immediately and held on strong."

The lady bears come home to Macon with a team title, surpassing 14 teams including conference foes Western Carolina, The Citadel, and Wofford. The tight front pack of Bears of Laney Doster (18:40), Giulia Giorgi (18:43), Leah Pfaff (18:44), and Bri Teegarden (18:45) with a five-second spread sealed the deal for the team victory with Reese Robertson (19:17) closing out the scoring for the Bears for a team score of 48. All of the scorers ran personal record times over the rolling terrain.

MEN'S RACE (8K)
Men averaged 25:28, their second fastest outing in school history (to the Live in Lou performance two weeks ago). The average also was 49 seconds faster than the Bears' performance at this competition last year. Vlad Zander-Velloso led the Bears for the third time this season in a near personal record of 24:47, good for second place in the race. He led Josh Kraver (25:26), Jonny Greene (25:34), Reece Cato (25:37), and Buck Ledford (25:58) to a 3rd place team finish. The result was good enough to top all conference foes.

"The men came in with a similar plan to the women to race for the win and despite some great performances, we came up a little short for a top 3 finish. The men running almost a minute faster on average than last year at this same race was very encouraging and reinforced that we are the best we have ever been," said Coach Hayman. "Proud of the risks many guys took including Vlad narrowly missing out on an individual win and Buck stepping up to be our 5th and run a big personal best time on a more challenging course."

UP NEXT
Both teams look to bring strong momentum into the conference championship hosted by the Citadel on John's Island at the end of the month on October 30th.

FOLLOW THE BEARS
For complete coverage of Mercer Cross Country, follow the team at @MercerXCTF (Twitter), /mercerxctf (Facebook) and @mercerbearsxctf (Instagram) or visit the official home of Mercer Athletics at MercerBears.com.