Owls Have Two Top 10 Finishes at FAU Invite

Friday, September 30

Boca Raton, Fla./South County Regional Park

6:30 p.m.

Florida Atlantic

Florida Atlantic Invitational

Photo by: Â©JC Ridley/FAU Athletics

9/30/2022 8:09:00 PM | Men's Cross Country, Women's XC/Track & Field

Results

By: Ben Paul, FAU Student

BOCA RATON, Fla. – The Florida Atlantic University men's and women's cross country teams competed in the eighth annual FAU Invitational, their only home meet of the season, on Friday at the South County Regional Park. The afternoon for the Owls was highlighted by two individual finishes in the top 10, with Casey O'Connor on the women's side placing in second and Christopher Jones on the men's side finishing in sixth.

Coach Smolka's Take

Head Coach Alex Smolka on the team's performance
"Overall, I'm very happy with how we ran. We were very shorthanded on both sides, having our typical number one runners out. That certainly put us in a little bit of a hole as far as the team scores go. Individually, we had people step up in a big way. Both Chris on the men's side and Casey on the women's side had very strong races. We can certainly see the progress. It's exciting to see people use what we do in practice and put it to good use in competitions. We're not quite where we want to be yet, but it looks like we're on the right path. I'm excited to see what the next few weeks bring!"

Quick Hits

Women (5K)

The women's team placed in fourth out of seven teams with a score of 84 points
O'Connor set a new personal best for the second meet in a row as she crossed the finish line second out of 79 runners. Her time of 18:22.0 breaks her PR by over 30 seconds
Jordan Stevens was next to finish for the Owls, placing in 20th (19:26.2)
Izzi O'Brien followed closely behind, finishing in 22nd place with a time of 19:33.2
Erin Shannon (19:48.2) and Holly Arrison (20:03.01) finished 27th and 29th, respectively

Men (7k)

The men finished in fifth out of eight teams with a score of 111 points
Jones finished in sixth place in a field of 64 runners (24:18.9)
Bodey Miller rounded out the top 20 for the Owls, placing in 19th with a time of 24:58.3

Upcoming

The Owls will have one final regular season meet in Tampa on Oct. 14 before the Conference USA Championships on Oct. 29.

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