NJCAA National XC Championships
The FSCJ BlueWave Men's and Women's Cross-Country teams traveled to Mechanicsville Virginia to compete in the NJCAA DII National Championships held at Pole Green Park.
Wind gusts to 30mph at the start of the race greeted the women's team that had been in a 3-way tie for 25th in the national rankings in late September but were bumped from the ranking in October. Hannah Ziegler led the women's team with a PR of 21:16 over the cold, and very windy 5,000m course at Pole Green Park and was followed by Hailey Smith, Meghan Bonser, Kayla Konnick, and Abigail Gray to finish 24th in the nation.
"Very strong racing today with 2 PR's (personal records) 2 season's best times, and another awesome kick by Meghan (Bonser), I commented Coach Hale.
The men's team, entered the meet ranked 24th in the nation, was led by freshman Brennan Popik to a strong 17th place team finish over the 8,000m course. Popik, 28:03, was followed closely by Adrian Figueroa, 28:21. The team was in 20th place at the 4-mile mark but PR's and fast closing final miles by Joe Hale, 28:28, Drew Stone, 29:45, and Axl Linsner, 30:36 pulled the team to a 17th place finish and 15 points ahead of cross regional rival Tallahassee Community College. Once again Florida's NJCAA Region 8 proved to be the dominant region in the country with 6 Women's teams in the top 24 and 4 Men's teams in the top 18.
"We were without our usual #1 man, (NATYCAA National Scholar Athlete of the Year, John Bear) and the rest of the team needed to step up, and they did." said Head Coach Jody Hale. "I knew both teams were better than their rankings, and today they went out and proved it.'