Oct. 14, 2006
<?xml:namespace prefix=”st1″ ns=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags”?>Greenville, S.C. – The USC women’s cross country team finished fourth Saturday at the Furman Invitational and bested Clemson for the third time this season. The Gamecocks finished with 113 points in the final meet scheduled before the SEC Championships, and in-state rival Clemson placed sixth with 133 points.<?xml:namespace prefix=”o” ns=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office”?>
Sophomore Casey Gale continued to pace USC with her fifth race as the number one finisher for the team. She led the Gamecocks at 19:08 and finished in seventh place on the individual leader board.
“Casey got into the top group and ran well again,” Coach Stan Rosenthal said. “She held the fifth position for a long period of time before the conclusion. It was also encouraging to see three of our runners in the Top 20.”
Carolina’s other Top 20 finishers were Rebecca Chain (19:32), who placed 15th overall, and Callie Rabun (19:43), who placed 19th overall. Nicki Breves (19:59) and Lisa McKinney (20:18) rounded out the scoring positions at 30th and 42nd, respectively.
“They fought hard,” Rosenthal said. “Casey ran a great race. There were also some parameters where Rebecca Chain ran better than she did at Auburn. Callie Rabun also had a good race for us, but we need better consistency between our one and five runners. We need to get it closer to 30 seconds between the top five like we did earlier in the season.”
Sixteen teams competed in the 34th annual Furman Invitational. North Florida took the team title with 73 points, followed by Furman with 83 points and Central Florida with 100 points. Kennesaw State University tied the Gamecocks for with 113 points, but USC won the tiebreaker due to its sixth runner position. Anna Petrov finished with a time of 20:24, 13 spots ahead of Kennesaw’s sixth runner. Sarah Coghlan from North Florida took the individual title with a time of 18:20.
“It wasn’t our best race of the year, but it was a hard effort,” Rosenthal said. “Over the course of the last mile, we didn’t lose any spots but some of our runners moved up. That was good to see because we haven’t been doing that throughout the season.”
Senior Karen Wigal was also expected to race Saturday but did not participate to allow her to rest her knee for the SEC Championships. The event will be held Oct. 28 in Baton Rouge, La.
