PENSACOLA, Fla. – The Spring Hill College cross country team was led by Zachary Thomas and Evelyn Hererra in the Argonaut Invitational, hosted by West Florida on Friday.
 
The men's team finished seventh out of nine teams. Thomas placed 49^th with a personal-best time of 30:49.9. Not far behind was Charles Duggan (31:08.4) and Ethan Sisk (31:30.6), who both ran their first collegiate 8K, finishing 53^rd and 57^th, respectively. Rounding out the SHC scoring was Luke Burlison, Luke Mipro, Teotl Heredia, and Curtis Laurent who finished 61^st, 78^th, 83^rd, and 91^st respectively.
 
Hererra finished 63^rd in the women's 5K with a time of 25:02.8. Just behind her was Kerrigan Klevanosky, who finished with a time of 26:17.6 and placed 68^th. Allison Mangan (27:00.4) and Ava Courtney (28:48.1) finished 74^th and 83^rd, respectively.  
 
Meet Details
Date: Sept. 20
Location: Pensacola, Fla.
 
Results
Men's 8K
1. Ouachita Baptist – 22
2. West Florida – 55
3. Mobile – 62
4. Coastal Alabama CC – 128
5. Enterprise State CC – 135
6. Gadsden State CC – 197
7. Spring Hill – 199
8. Shelton State CC – 221
9. LBW Community College – 242
 
Women's 5K
1. Ouachita Baptist – 17
2. West Florida – 46
3. Mobile – 105
4. Shelton State CC – 107
5. Gulf Coast State College – 137
6. Gadsden State CC – 149
7. Enterprise State CC – 206
8. Chipola College – 222
 
They Said It – Head Coach Craig McVey
On the meet
"Both teams raced hard.  This was the first 8,000 M race for 50% of our men's team, to say we're young is an understatement.  The course was a tough one to roll out on for your first 8K.  The footing was like running on a bad beach with a lot of sandbags to shore up areas of footing.  Add in the hilly portions of the course and you do not have a course that will race fast. Challenging is an understatement.  We had two people sprain an ankle, that just doesn't happen, but it did. Our men were seventh with a number of teams not posting a team score.  Our women didn't score we lost one runner to a badly sprained ankle."
 
On the women's 5k
"Overall, our women raced tough but, like the men we're so young the course just really beat us up. That's ok we'll use that experience to continue to get ready for our conference meet. There's a racing learning curve though and we'll take advantage of it."
 
On the men's 8k
"Four of the seven we raced had never raced 8K before. That's as young as you can get, without having a totally freshman team. Zach and Charley had solid races, Ethan did a nice job in his first collegiate cross country race. Our men will take advantage of what they learned and be ready to roll at Nicholls State next weekend."
 
Looking ahead
"Back to work, making each day count in getting better.  We head to Nicholls on Friday for our Saturday races."
 
Up Next
The Badgers head to Thibodaux, La. on Saturday to run in the Nicholls XC Invitational. 
 
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