On a beautiful Saturday morning, 30 Sept, the Georgia Military College Cross Country teams traveled to Aiken, South Carolina to run in the Pacer Invitational. The course was a challenging one that weaved through the sand hills of South Carolina and prevented very fast times, both teams ran very well. Speaking of the course, Coach Rob Sherwood said "The Pacer Path is the most difficult course that we will run this season. Some courses are flat and fast, others are hard, this course is one of the hard one. The variety of terrain, elevation changes and other factors make for a great challenge. The runners ran great, and had one of their best races of the season, even of the times do not reflect this."
The GMC women were led once again by Freshmen Jhakira Glover (Bradenton, FL) who finished the race in 23:23 to place 8th. She was followed up Haley Valentine (Platte, MO) in 13th place, Jessica Hurtado (Grovetown, GA) in 16th place, Nekebah Smith (Milledgeville) in 18th place and Diana Vera (Naples, FL) in 21st place. As a team, the girls finished in 3rd place out of 5 teams. They were the only NJCAA school in the field and defeated two four year schools. This was accomplished without National Championship qualifiers Destinee Hernandez and Kaitlyn Karkola who were both unable to run at the race.
Head coach Rob Sherwood speaking of the meet said, "The course was a challenging one, but fair. It is on courses like these where the stronger runners really move to the front, and our kids responded. I am so pleased with their progress this season."
The GMC Bulldogs will compete on 6 October at the GCSU Bobcat Invitational to be held at Council Farms on Council McCranie Rd just south of the Fall Line Freeway between routes 441 and 112 in Wilkinson County, GA.