Bears Have Record-Setting Day at Mercer Open

Women's Results

Men's Results

MACON, Ga. - The Mercer cross country team competed against four other teams at the fifth annual Mercer Open track meet as a part of its spring season.  Participating teams included Valdosta State, Augusta State, Georgia College and Savannah College of Art and Design. 

Among the highlights for the MU men was Andrew Weems' and Sony Prosper's performance in the five kilometer race.  Both men moved away from the pack early in the race and then battled one another, each taking the lead twice each.  However, Weems proved to have the stronger kick in the last lap and was able to out-pace Prosper by just over three seconds. The sophomore Weems finished the race in 15:53.43 with Prosper, a freshman, at 15:57.25.  Weems' time was good enough to take second on the Mercer's all-time list. 

Another notable performance by the men included an exciting battle between Mercer sophomore Jacob Law, ASU's Dustin Ross and SCAD's Ignacio Fernandez in the men's mile. All three men finished with less than nine-tenths of a second separating them. Fernandez crossed the line in 4:29.65 with Ross and Law following in 4:30.24 and 4:30.52, respectively.

The women's team made a full-on assault on the team's record books. 

Freshman Linda Batna kicked off the record-shredding performances by dominating the women's 3-kilometer race.  As the race began, Augusta State's Claudia Nunez-Lopez surged to the front, followed by SCAD's Megan O'Boyle and Batna.  Batna was content to tuck in for the first two laps of the seven and one-half lap race, but as the pace began to lag slightly, she took over with a decisive move.  None of the other runners could answer Batna's challenge as she continued to stretch her lead for the remainder of the race.  Batna's time of 10:43.74 shattered the old mark by over 17 seconds.

Sophomore Kacie Niemann had MU's next record performance in the standard mile.  Niemann, Holly Keeper from ASU and Mercer freshman Samantha Woller led the race from the gun and stayed tightly grouped through 800 meters. Niemann made her move and was able to gain some separation from her challengers, especially on the last lap. The Kentucky native ran a time of 5:16.58, topping the old record of 5:38.52.

The final record to fall at the meet was the women's Distance Medley Relay (DMR).  The relay team consisted of freshman Lena Hamvas, Woller, Niemann and Batna.

Hamvas led off with the 1200m leg with Augusta State's Nunez-Lopez battling her hard the entire distance. The batons were passed to the 400-meter runners in a virtual dead-heat. 

The 400-meter leg is where the Mercer women broke the race wide open.  Woller ran a blistering quarter mile, outpacing the ASU sprinter by a wide margin. Woller passed the baton to Niemann, who put the competition out of contention during her 800-meter leg.  Batna took the baton with an insurmountable lead, and still ran an impressive 1600-meter section to cap off the relay with a combined time of 13:02.04.  The women's DMR quartet shattered the previous record by 1:36 minutes.

Mercer will resume its spring competition at Georgia Tech's Georgia Intercollegiate meet in Atlanta on March 18th and 19th.