The 2016 Georgia Military College cross country season came to a close on 12 November at the NJCAA Division III National Championships.  The race was contested on the very difficult Bruce Bridgman Cross Country Course at Finger Lakes Community College in Canandaigua, New York.  The running Bulldog's had been working since the Summer to be in peak form for this race.

As the gun sounded to start the women's race, the sun was shining and it was a cool 39 degrees.  Over the 5k course, the ladies had about 1.5k of climbing, with one of the climbs of 90 vertical feet in about 200 meters.  This was a very steep hill.  GMC was led by Destinee Hernandez (Merrit Island, FL) who finished in 53^rd place.  Haley Valentine (Platte City, MO) 78^th and Jessica Hurtado (Grovetown, GA) 82^nd were the other two runners from GMC.  All three had a great race.  Speaking of the course, Hernandez said "The course was really hard.  I wanted to stop on the hill, but I knew that if I could keep going, I would pass quite a few runners."  Speaking about the women's race, Coach Rob Sherwood said, "I am so proud of these girls.  To see their improvement during the season has been remarkable.  They represented GMC, and themselves well.  All three will return next season, and I expect big things out of them."

Full results are available here: 

http://www.flotrack.org/result/9190-2016-diii-njcaa-xc-championships