Cross Country | 10/5/2024 11:20:00 PM

AVE MARIA, Fla. - The Ave Maria University cross country teams hosted teams from across the state of Florida Saturday morning in the annual Ave Maria Invitational at North Park. The Gyrene men left with hardware, as Ave Maria won the team title on the men's side. The women placed fifth in a field of ten teams, with two runners on the women's side placing in the top 20 of a competitive field.

The Ave Maria men placed two runners inside the top five and three in the top seven to lead their winning effort. Samuel Paga led the Ave Maria contingent, crossing the finish line with a time of 26:36.9 to place fourth. Christopher Hermann was less than 15 seconds behind Paga with a fifth place time of 26:51.1, while Michael Long placed seventh with a time of 27:02.7.

Sebastian Shea placed fourth among Gyrenes with a time of 27:16.8, good for eleventh, while John Halvorsen rounded out the scoring effort with a 13th place time of 27:40.1. With five runners in the top 13, Ave Maria cruised to a win in the team race, topping runner up University of Tampa by 57 points. The individual champion was Ian Kimutai-Ruto of Edward Waters, who was the only runner in the field to finish in less than 26 minutes at 25:38.7

On the women's side, Sofia Torres was Ave Maria's top runner, finishing seventh overall with a 6k time of 23:32.4. Joining Torres in the top 20 from Ave Maria was junior Madison Thomas, who crossed the finish line with a time of 24:12.2. Third among Gyrenes was returning NAIA Championships qualifier Felicity Foxhoven, who was the last runner to break the 25-minute mark with a time of 24:58.3.

Ave Maria's final two scorers finished within 1.5 seconds of one another. Lily Burke was fourth across the line with a time of 25:20.6, while Anne Scheck rounded out Ave Maria's team score of 106 points with a time of 25:22.1. NCAA Division I Florida International University won the team title by two points over Nova Southeastern University, with FIU's Valerie Lastra winning the individual title by almost 30 seconds.

The Gyrenes will compete just one more time before November's Sun Conference Championships, returning to Holloway Park in Lakeland for the second time this season. Ave Maria will compete at the Holloway Park Twilight Meet, hosted by Florida Southern College, on Friday, October 18. It will be AMU's final tuneup before the conference championships are held on the same course on Saturday, November 9.