Women Earn First and Men Earn Second at Great American XC Festival

Saturday, October 6

Cary, N.C.

9:30 AM

Florida Atlantic

Great American XC Festival

Women Earn First and Men Earn Second at Great American XC Festival

10/6/2018 12:50:00 PM | Men's Cross Country, Women's XC/Track & Field

CARY, N.C. – The Florida Atlantic University men's and women's cross country teams had an impressive turnout at the Great American XC Festival in North Carolina on Saturday morning. The women's team took first place overall and the men's team claimed second place.

QUICK HITS – WOMEN (5K)

The women's team earned the top spot with four runners in the top-five and eight in the top-10. On the collegiate side, the Owls were competing against two other teams. The race was ran as a part of the HBCU Challenge as well with 14 total teams. Among those teams, FAU still claimed the top spot.
Mikaela Jonsson raced to a first place finish in 18:48.3. She was the top runner among 22 collegiate runners and 97 total runners in the challenge.
FAU took all three spots on the proverbial podium with Jonsson at first followed by Sophia Clark and Erica Lersch at second and third. Clark finished the race in 19:18.8, while Lersch clocked in at 19:23.6.
Prisca König had a personal best time of 19:50.3 for a fifth place finish. Bethany Hardcastle followed just behind with a time of 20:02.2 for a sixth place finish.
This is the third team title for the Owls this season and second straight after claiming first at the FAU XC Invite and FLRunners.com Invite last weekend.

ALEX SMOLKA'S TAKE ON THE WOMEN'S TEAM
"It was great to have the gap between the top five as close as it was. Having the overall champion is always great. It was also exciting to see our freshmen compete well on a tough course and our upperclassmen showed great leadership."

MIKAELA JONSSON POST-RACE
"It has been such a great season so far and especially meaningful coming off an injury in the spring, which put me out for the track season. I worked very hard in rehab and cross training in the summer, so it's very rewarding to see it paying off. Today was an incredible feeling. I always try to visualize coming across the line with the win, but this is the first time I've experienced it at the collegiate level. The overall team win was just the cherry on top!

We have just one race left before conference and I know we all want more. I think Coach (Smolka) has done an exceptional job this year and the feeling of the team is one of great unity this season. We are really grinding hard together. I think we all will push each other a lot over the next few weeks and have an exciting conference on home soil. The best is yet to come!"

QUICK HITS – MEN (8K)

The men's team took second place behind Duke University.
Lachlan Shiver was the top FAU runner with a fifth place finish in 25:42.3, a new personal best and the third fastest 8K time in school history.
Jonathan Werble finished just outside the top-10 with a time of 26:44.6 for an 11th place finish.
Sean Barone raced to a 16th place finish with a time of 27:09.1. John Marting completed the race two spots behind Barone for 18th place in 27:24.01.

ALEX SMOLKA'S TAKE ON THE MEN'S TEAM
"The team has been working extremely hard and putting in the miles, and we are beginning to see the fruits of our labor. Having Lachlan as our front runner really helps us lower our team score. We are still working on keeping our gap between him and the next four runners as small as possible. That's what we will be focusing on in the next few weeks getting ready for the C-USA Champs. We had PRs from Lachlan, Nolan and Jericho today. Overall, a very nice day for the guys!"

LACHLAN SHIVER POST-RACE
"It means a lot to be having the season that I am this year. When I was a freshman, I always had the mindset I was just doing this for fun and now it's really different being in the lead pack. It makes me happy. I never fathomed making it this far."

UP NEXT
Both teams will travel to Tampa for the South Florida Invitational hosted by USF on October 12 for the final regular season meet of the year. FAU will be hosting the Conference USA Championship on October 27 at South County Regional Park.

For complete coverage of FAU cross country and track & field, follow along on Twitter (@FAU_XC_Track) or Instagram (@FAUXC.TF).