After a disappointing outing at the Belmont Opener, the men and women of Vanderbilt Cross Country traveled to Gainesville last Friday, Sept. 15, for the Mountain Dew Invitational hosted by the University of Florida. Showing resilience and bouncing back against tough competition following the lackluster opener, the women’s team finished 2nd out of 14 teams, while the men placed 6th out of 15.
The races snaked through Florida’s Mark Bostick Golf Course, the designated site for November’s 2023 NCAA South Regional Championship. The women’s race spanned three miles while the men’s measured 7.8 kilometers. The race gave, Vanderbilt’s runners valuable experience on a course that they could be competing on again later in the fall.
The women performed impressively at the Invitational, placing second as a team with 42 points, only 4 points behind the winners, Florida. With an average time of 17 minutes and 29 seconds, the ladies were led by graduate student Caroline Eck, who dazzled with a time of 17:14.3 for a fourth overall finish. Hot on the tails of Eck were sophomore Emma Curry and junior Ella Lambert, who finished at 17:24.4 for sixth and 17:25.4 for seventh, respectively. Julia Rosenberg and Joslin Blair also impressed, as Rosenberg secured tenth with a time of 17:37.1, while Blair finished fifteenth with a time of 17:46.3
Despite placing lower in comparison, the men’s outing revealed bright prospects for the future. Out of Vanderbilt’s top five finishers, three were freshmen. Freshman Jack DesRoches was Vanderbilt’s frontrunner, finishing at 24:35.4 to navigate the 7.8-kilometer course for eighth place. DesRoches was tailed by fellow freshman Brady Bliven, who finished 34th overall with a time of 25:13.0. The third freshman to crack Vanderbilt’s top five was Jackson Scruggs, who sped through the course in 25:27.0. The rest of the top five also included junior Zach Hodges and senior Andrew Pahnke, who posted times of 25:22.2 and 25:23.9, respectively.
The Commodores’ performance in Gainesville should serve as an important building block for this team’s success going forward. The women showed off their speed en route to a second place finish against tough competition, while the men impressed with their strong freshman core.
The Commodores will look to further realize their potential on Sept. 29 at the Joe Piane Invitational in South Bend, Ind., hosted by Notre Dame.
