ROCK HILL, SC—The Winthrop men finished second while the women were third out of seven teams in the 20th annual Winthrop Asics Cross Country Invitational that was held Saturday morning at the Winthrop Lake Course.
East Tennessee claimed first place in the men’s Gold Division (Div. I schools) with 27 points while Mars Hill was the Garnet Division (non Div. 1) champion with 47 points. On the women’s side, Davidson totaled 24 points enroute to the Gold Division title while Birmingham-Southern, with 29 points, won the Garnet Division.
Winthrop’s men had three runners finish in the top 10 of the 8K race. Seniors Brad Orr (Piedmont, SC) and Trevor Beesley (Greenwood, SC) finished second and third for the Eagle men while Rock Hill junior Brandon Hudgins claimed sixth place. Orr covered the distance in a time of 25:22 . Beesley was just one second behind at 25:23. Hudgins turned in a time of 26:09. The individual champion in the Gold Division was ETSU’s Kenneth Rotich with a time of 25:13.
The fastest time of the day was produced by Queens (NC) product Daniel Kanyaruhuru from Phoenix, AZ who won the Garnet Division in a time of 24:40.
In the women’s 5K race, the Lady Eagles were led by sophomore Lisa Sickman (Clarkston, MI) who finished third with a time of 18:22. She was the only non-Davidson or South Carolina runner to finish in the top 10. The individual winner of the women’s Gold Division was Caroline Sanker of Davidson who covered the course in the fastest time of the day with a clocking of 17:12.
