Photos: FSU women’s team poses with championship trophy, hoisted by individual champion Violah Lagat. Lagat crossing finish line. (FSU Sports Information)
FSU Women Claim Fifth Consecutive ACC Title; Lagat Wins Individual Crown
Seminole men finish third behind O Neill’s runner-up effort.
BLACKSBURG, Va. - The Florida State women’s cross country team captured their fifth consecutive Atlantic Coast Conference championship Saturday at Virginia Tech, easily outdistancing runner-up Duke. Coach Karen Harvey’s squad placed all five scoring runners in the top 14, led by senior co-captain Violah Lagat, who captured the individual title in a course record time of 20:00.1.
Colleen Quigley (fourth), Kayleigh Tyerman (fifth), Amanda Winslow (11th) and Georgia Peel (14th) joined Lagat in winning All-ACC honors for the Seminoles, who finished with a 35-67 winning margin over the second place Blue Devils.
Coach Bob Braman’s Florida State men finished third in one of the most hotly contested championship team races in recent history. Host Virginia Tech claimed the team title with 55 points, followed by Virginia (61) and the Seminoles (62). Senior Breandan O Neill turned in an outstanding runner-up performance for the Seminoles, covering the hilly, 8-kilometer course in 23:42.2.
Senior David Forrester, racing for the first time in a month, was 12th and Jakub Zivec was 13th as the trio of Seminole front-runners earned All-ACC honors. Senior Wes Rickman turned in his finest performance in nearly two seasons, placing 15th, one spot away from an All-ACC finish, while graduate student Seth Proctor rounded out the FSU scorers in 20th.
A complete story will follow later today on Seminoles.com.
FSU Women’s XC Coach Karen Harvey
"It was little crazy out there today. We came here to defend our title and we did. We are still trying to figure a couple of things out before nationals, but we had some bright spots today.
“Violah (Lagat) and I had a talk last night about our two-year drought in individual champions at this event. She really wanted to win this race. I'm pleased for her."
FSU Senior Co-Captain and ACC Champion Violah Lagat
"I felt really confident coming into this race. I had some good workouts the last two weeks. I'm happy with my time (20:00.1). We hadn't had the ACC individual champion since 2009, so I really wanted to win my last race in the ACC."