Southern Hills Golf Club hosted the TTU Invitational 8k race in which the Golden Eagles took second overall in both the men’s and women’s divisions in front of a home crowd.
This marks the best finishes of the season for both teams, trumping their previous spots in fifth overall in the last two races.
Tech junior John Greene crossed the line first to take the individual win after closely following Jacksonville State’s Mickey Sanders for the majority of the race. In the final lap of the course, Greene pulled a lead on Sanders and finished five seconds ahead of the JSU runner. Greene, who has set and reset new personal best records at the first two races of the season, broke his own record again by finishing with a time of 26 minutes, 39.49 seconds.
“I was really excited about racing in front of our home crowd and I’m glad I could have such a good race in front of them,” Greene said. “I was really happy with my time and everyone else’s. I’m excited to see what we can do this next week on a faster course.”
Rounding out the top three was Tech sophomore Matt Bishop with a finishing time of 27:12.37. This was almost enough to give Tech a first place overall, but six runners in the Top 10 from JSU edged out a win with 25 points over the Golden Eagle’s 33 points.
After the men’s race was in the books, the female competitors lined up to make their 5k run at the first place title. Sophomore Peri Winborne was the first Tech female to cross the line in fifth overall, recording a time of 20:13.67. Winborne had help securing the second place overall from teammates Rebecca Cline and Traci Jones, who also finished inside the Top 10.
“I felt stronger at the finish than I have in a while and I’m so proud of how everyone on the team did,” Winborne said. “We’ve really improved since last year and everyone is working hard to keep improving for our conference meet.”
Rounding out Tech’s women’s team were Leah Bradley, Beth Miller, Megan O’Donoghue, and three freshman runners Kara Webb, Elizabeth Mitchell, and Katie McCrary.
The Golden Eagles will be lining up again for the Jacksonville State Invitational Oct. 8.