By Terrence Hinds, Staff Writer

Published in print Nov 18. 2014

The Blue and Gold Men’s and Women’s cross country teams competed in the NCAA Division I Southeast Regional last Friday afternoon in their second to last race of the season.

In their meet before next week NCAA Championships, the women’s team complete in the 6,000-meter race and finished in 30 place overall.

The schools, William & Mary, Virginia and North Carolina took the top three honors respectively.

Women’s Cross Country

In their first meet since the Oct. 31 Southern Conference Championships where the team finished a solid fifth place, the Blue and Gold were led by second team All Southern Conference members Katyln Ayers and Eira Jensen.

With sophomore Katherine Link, the trio finished as the top three finishers for UNCG. 

Over this past weekend, the Spartans saw much improvement from their runners.

Red shirt sophomore Eira Jensen was the top female finisher for the Spartans, setting a new personal record with a final time of 22:11.60.

Ohio native, Katherine Link also a red shirt sophomore came in second for the Blue and Gold, finishing at 22:26.90.

Katlyn Ayers a junior out of Fort Valley, Va./ Strasburg also set a new personal best for the 6,000-meter race with a time of 22:44.40.

A respective time, Amanda Branch finished the day at 24:50.80, which is a new personal best for the freshman.

Samiiah Wilson from Apex, N.C. also had a new best time, coming in at 25:56.60.

Finishing close behind was Katlyn Adkins from Fayetteville, N.C. with a time of 26:14.60 in her first 6,000-meter race of her career.

Meredith Hicks from Raleigh, finished the day at 26:26.50 to finish out the final of the six runners who ran for UNCG this weekend.

Men’s Cross Country

UNCG freshman runner Geoffrey Korir, who was named to the Southern Conference All-Freshman Team at the end of October, continued his strong performance this year.

Korir ‘s showing helped the Spartans finish in seventh place as a team in the 8,000-meter race.

For the rest of the men’s side, the Spartans finished as a team 29 overall.

In the race, Virginia University finished first overall as a team, with fellow Southern Conference member and rival Furman finishing second.

The North Carolina Tarheels finished third to round out the top three schools

Freshman Geoffry Korir was the Spartans top male finisher for the 10,000-meter race with a final time of 32:41.90 to finish 123rd overall over the weekend.

The race was the first 10,000-meter race of his career so it was definitely interesting to see how the freshman adjusted to the moment, as he performing admirably.

Fellow freshman Luke Sumerford the hometown runner from Greensboro, was the Spartans second finisher, with a time of 33:27.60,.

With Korir, this was also Sumerford’s first 10,000-meter race Friday.

Fellow classmate Robel Tecel finished the day a little behind his teammates as he finished with a time at 34:29.60.

Rounding out the rest of the seven members of the team, sophomore Patrick O’Grady the finished the day at 34:46.10.

Freshman Bryan Whyms out of Charlotte was not far behind, as he finishing the race at 35:08.00. Brandon King had a final time of 36:13.60 for the afternoon.