Bears' Cross Country Teams Head to Georgia State Invitational

HAMPTON, Ga. – The Mercer cross country teams will make a run at another good outing on Friday at the Georgia State Invitational at Nash Farm Batterfield Park. The women’s 5K race is at 3 p.m., followed by the men’s 8K event at 3:40 p.m.

The MU women came within nine seconds of the school team 5K record, running a 19:41.65 average at the UGA Invitational. The Bears were led by its youth movement, as freshman runners finished as the team’s first (Lena Hamvas), second (Sammy Woller) and fourth (Linda Batna) places. The third finisher was sophomore Kacie Niemann.

The men’s team did establish a new 8K team record at UGA, posting a clocking of 26:35.92 collectively.

Sophomore Andrew Weems was the Bears No. 1 finisher, running a personal best of 26:01.65. The team’s tremendous grouping – the five top runners were all within 1:22 minutes of each other – accounted for the record run.

Sophomore Chris Svidesskis and freshman Sony Prosper placed second and third, respectively, in last Saturday’s season opening competition. Junior Marc Kushinka and sophomore Jacob Law rounded out MU’s quintet at the top.