Oct. 8, 2005

Auburn, Ala. – Despite a wet and soggy course the USC Cross Country team showed great improvement at the 13th Annual Auburn Invitational on Saturday in Auburn, Ala.

The Gamecocks finished the 5K course at the Indian Pines Golf Course in 16th place with a total of 431 points. However, 14 athletes finished the competition, while several improved their times.

“We ran some good times, but obviously didn’t have a great team finish,” said USC Cross Country Coach Stan Rosenthal. “We had some PRs and it was a big improvement overall. Hopefully we’ll keep improving until we get to the SEC meet. We just have to keep working hard and keeping improving.”

Leading the Gamecocks once again this week was sophomore Rebecca Chain who finished the competition in a respectable 66th place with a time of 18:38. Having her strongest performance of the season, senior Shay Shelton ran a personal best of 18:58 for an 87th- place finish.

Also finishing the competition for the Gamecocks were Anna Petrov (19:05), Nicki Breves (19:14), Theresa Verostek (19:15), Kelsey Bristol (19:17), Alyse Shayer (19:24), Megan Robers (19:42), Jess Smith (19:52), Julie Reale (19:55), Caitlin McGroerty (19:59), Kayla Curtis (20:16), Danielle Franklin (20:39) and Jackie Vignos (20:50).

Chattanooga’s senior Shannon Wommack won the race with a time of 16:20, while Samford took the title with a total of 86 points. Other SEC schools finishing in the top 10 were Alabama in third place with 138 points and Mississippi State in fourth place with 148 points. A total of 23 teams competed in the invitational.

The Gamecocks will head to Boone, N.C. next weekend for the Appalachian State Invitational before preparing for the SEC Championship, which the Gamecocks will host on October 29th in Columbia, S.C.