AU men's cross-country team wins both Royals Challenge races; Motes, Lagan excel for Jaguars
Staff report
CHARLOTTE, N.C.—With full rosters, the Augusta Jaguars dove headfirst into the Royals XC Challenge on Friday, Oct. 7, with the men winning the both the blue and gold races.
The AU men beat out regional threats Emmanuel, Anderson, Catawba and Queens. The women’s program finished in 13th place out of 27 teams in the gold race.
Despite the McAlpine Creek Park course running 150 meters long, both men’s and women’s teams brought home many personal bests across the board.
Cassie Lagan led her teammates through with a 35th-place finish in a time of 18:39.4. Finishing behind her was Riley Triplett in 52nd place with a time of 19:01.3 and Caroline Pierce in 107th place with a time of 19:38.6.
“We had a bunch of PRs,” said Triplett, who just missed breaking the 19-minute mark.
This was also Pierce’s first 5K PR since eighth grade.
On the men’s side, AU finally got to see Kai Brickey return after being sidelined to injury earlier in the season. Despite taking a spill and falling in the first mile due to contact with other racers, Brickey finished in 16th place with a time of 24:55.7, just behind Patrick Motes, who once again led the Jaguars as the new No. 1 in 12th place in a time of 24:49.6.
“Once we got out, we settled in and got our pack together,” said Motes. “We hit it hard and kept our foot on the gas. It was just the guys running back together, we had a good time with it.”
With the full roster coming back, Augusta also got to see one of the tighter racing spreads in school history with a 25 second gap between their 1-5 split and only an 11 second gap between their 1-4. This method of pack running proved to be quite effective in the men’s victory last Friday and they plan on continuing this success into the coming meets at Wingate and PBC’s.
“Our younger guys really stepped up,” said AU’s Hans Troyer, who finished 18th in the gold race. “That 25-second spread could be a little better, which is exciting, since we haven’t really touched much on speed work at all yet. So this was just a show of our aerobic ability.”
Avery Jaynes was fourth for AU in the gold race with a 20th-place finish, followed by Thomas Rischar in 30th. Andrew Todd finished 38th.
AU’s Nasrudin Mohamed finish eighth in the blue race in 26:35.4. Matthew Moore was next for the Jaguars, in 13th place. Kaleb Ellis took 17th.
Up next for AU is Wingate’s Bulldog Stampede on Oct. 14 in Wingate, N.C.
Hans Troyer (2218), Patrick Motes (2210) and Kai Brickey (2198) run in the tightly packed confines of McAlpine Creek Park’s cross-country trail in Charlotte, N.C. (photo by Church Ezeokonkwo) At the top of the page, the Jaguars take off at the start. (photo by David Troyer)
