AU's Lagan, Mohamed earn runners of the week in PBC
By Kai Brickey | Sports writer
WINGATE, N.C.— After a successful meet at the Bulldog Stampede on Oct. 14, Augusta University swept the PBC runner-of-the-week awards.
For the women, junior Cassie Lagan secured the honor with a second-place finish at Wingate with a time of 23:22.9 for the 6-kilometer race. The venue was a preview for the regional championship course and offered an excellent opportunity for the Lady Jags to compete against a top conference threat in North Georgia University.
“The biggest influence and impact on my racing has to be coach {Jacob) Burgamy,” said Lagan. “He knows exactly when the right time is for us to push ourselves and when we need to take it chill and easy.”
Earning this title certainly puts a target on one’s back, especially going into the conference meet on Nov. 5 at Beech Island, S.C. Lagan believes that this will make the younger women on the team more eager to pursue their goals to help the team becoming conference champions.
“I feel like this will also make the other teams in our region more driven to push harder to keep their spots,” said Lagan.
Lagan’s goals for the conference meet include placing in the top five as an individual and to win the conference title as a team.
“I would love to aim to get top 25 at regions, with my top goal being to place in the top individual placements to qualify for nationals,” said Lagan. “I believe that if our team attacks our conference and regional races just as hard as they work in practice, then there’s a chance we could qualify for nationals.”
On the men’s side, Nasrudin Mohamed earned the same award after finishing second (first amongst scoring members) in a time of 26:16.7 at the Bulldog Stampede.
Mohamed attributed the victory to his close-knit support group of his family and team.
“The team dynamic has been super positive from the jump, and it has propelled me forward to work harder and to keep pushing for faster times each week,” said Mohamed.
Mohamed has been steadily dropping time every single meet this year, with a total of two minutes and 12 seconds of improvement since his debut in September. Currently, he and teammate Andrew Cole are positioning themselves to become candidates to win freshman of the year at the PBC meet at Redcliffe Plantation.
“I wish to win the conference championship, and I hope to run something in the 25s and possibly be top seven as an individual to be able to compete at regional and nationals,” Mohamed said after making a promise that he’s ready to double down and “prepare well these next few weeks in order to reach these goals.”
Contact Kai Brickey at kbrickey@augusta.edu.
AU’s Nasrudin Mohamed (443) leads the pack in the Wingate Bulldog Stampede, earning him Peach Belt Conference honors as runner of the week. At the top of the page, the Jaguars’ Cassie Lagan shows her form in the women’s race. (photos by Joshua Smith)
