The Florida Southern Invitational in Lakeland, Fla. on Oct. 22 was the setting for one of UT’s most impressive running performances of the year.
Last weekend, the women finished first in the 6k and the men placed second in the 8k.
Four of the top-six individual finishes in the women’s race came from University of Tampa runners, including Heather Nicolosi’s time of 20:59. Nicolosi won the race by almost a minute while adding on to her already impressive resume. This was her best 6k time of the season, and fourth top-five finish in a race this year.
She seems poised to make a strong showing at the Sunshine State Conference Championships next weekend, and continue her pursuit of All-American status.
In addition, she was named SSC female runner of the week for the fourth time this season.
Lindsay Edwards finished fourth in the Florida Southern Invite with a 22:10 time. This marks the first top-five finish of the year for the junior, and could foreshadow a successful senior year for a student who did not run at all her freshman year.
As a team, UT won the women’s race, edging Florida State, USF and all SSC rivals. The Spartan women look ahead to Nov. 6 in Melbourne, Fla. when they attempt to claim their fourth consecutive SSC Title. The race will be hosted by Florida Tech.
The Spartan men also had a successful campaign at the Florida Southern invite 8k, including six top-twenty individual finishes.
Tony Nicolosi and Charles Toledo tied for the best UT men’s times, both finishing at 26:25, in eleventh and twelfth place, respectively. It was Toledo’s best finish since the Florida Tech Invite on Sept. 11th. The UT men finished second overall as a team.
The UT men’s next competition is also the SSC Championships on Nov. 6th, as they look to redeem a mediocre 4th place finish from 2009.
Miles Parks can be reached at mparks@spartans.ut.edu.