Eagles take 12th in Iowa
FORT DODGE, Iowa (November 14, 2020) – Behind a quintet of season PR's, Tallahassee Community College's men's cross country team claimed a 12th-place finish at Saturday's NJCAA Division II Cross Country Championships, hosted by Iowa Central Community College.
Freshman Bryce Bass was first across the stripe for the Eagles, finishing the 8K with a career-best time of 28:10.72, the third-fastest in school history.
Sophomore Will Stratton (28:39.98) clocked his fastest time of the season while fellow second-year runner Rodolph Adonis ran a career-best 30:01.55. Freshman Elijah Oquendo ran a 30:29.99, a 2:19 improvement over his previous best finish, and sophomore Austin Erbaio was 2:09 faster than his season-best time to post a 30:49.90.
The Eagles arrived in Iowa with a No. 17 national ranking but picked off three higher-ranked teams on Saturday, including No. 14 Florida State College at Jacksonville, who finished ahead of Tallahassee at the FCSAA State Championships on October 30.
Tallahassee beat out FSCJ by one point in Saturday's team standings.
Despite wind chills hovering near 40 degrees at race time, Saturday proved to be the Eagles' finest performance of the season.
Bass led the Tallahassee contingent wire-to-wire, finishing 51st in the 145-runner field. Sophomore Mat Maier ran a 28:31.42 to finish 62nd, two spots ahead of Stratton, who was 114th at the 1K mark before making a charge through the field.
Stratton moved up to 90th at the 2K mark and picked up another 14 places after 3 kilometers. By the 4K mark, he was into 67th.
Freshman Shawn Marcum ran a 29:50.17, good for 100th and when Adonis crossed the line two runners later to complete the team scoring, the Eagles had an average time of 29:02, their best of the season.
With the fall season complete, head coach Gary Droze will begin preparations for spring's outdoor track season.
