RESULTS
BOONE, N.C. – The Appalachian State men's cross country team made its season debut on its home course Friday and finished fifth among 11 teams in the Covered Bridge Open.
Running in wet conditions on the original 8,000-meter layout for the State Farm fields/Kennedy trails course, the Mountaineers totaled 95 points and lost a head-to-head tiebreaker with East Tennessee State for the fourth position.
ACC program Florida State won the event with 43 points, followed by strong Division II program Southern Indiana with 47. App State was only six points behind third-place UT Martin, which got a first-place time of 25 minutes, 52 seconds from Edwin Kurgat.
Based on scoring positions that excluded one unattached runner, junior
Evan Georges led the Mountaineers by placing 12
th in 26:29.
Collin Loy, another junior, crossed the line next with a 13
th-place time of 26:31, and
Michael Flanagan took 18
th in 26:44.
Gable Dershem (25
th, 26:59) and
Luke Bennett (27
th, 27:01) also scored for App State.
Ryan Shannon (28
th, 27:02) and
Ben Cignarale (30
th, 27:09) rounded out the top seven for the Mountaineers, who had two runners slowed by side cramps or "stitches."
Dershem, Bennett and Cignarale all finished in App State's top seven as true freshmen adjusting to the 8K distance that's longer than the 5K distance for high school runners, and Flanagan is a redshirt freshman.
"We were happy with the way the guys competed," App State coach
Michael Curcio said. "They got out really well and put themselves right up in front. I'm talking freshmen, redshirt freshmen. Mike Flanagan did a great job getting out, and
Evan Georges did a great job. It was kind of a breakthrough for Collin to be the No. 2 guy."
App State had only 32 seconds of separation between its first and fifth runners, and there were 38 seconds of separation between its first and seventh runners.
"That's a pretty good spread for an 8K in the first meet," Curcio said. "We had some positives there."
Team scores
1. Florida State 43
2. Southern Indiana 47
3. UT Martin 89
4. East Tennessee State 95
5. Appalachian State 95
6. Lenoir-Rhyne 214
7. UNC Asheville 223
8. Mars Hill 229
9. Lees-McRae 251
10. Lynchburg 254
11. Spartanburg Methodist 346
