TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Seminoles.com) — On a muggy morning, the (RV/19) Florida State cross country teams finished in the top three at the FSU XC Open at the Apalachee Regional Park.
Despite slower course conditions, the men were paced by Adriaan Wildschutt, who won the 8k race with a time of 23.21.9, roughly 11 seconds ahead of the next competitor. The Ceres, South Africa, native established himself as the leader early and started to pull away from the field by the 4k split.
Wildschutt never looked back and turned in the fourth-fastest collegiate 8k in Apalachee Regional Park history. He also owns the third-fastest mark, which he set back in February this year (23:16.7), which was his personal best.
“For me, this is my home course,” Wildschutt said. “You want to be able to do something and get a win. But for me, today was more about the team and how we could score. It was a good measurement to see where we’re at and things looked really good.”
Ahmed Muhumed finished behind Wildschutt in fourth place with a time of 23:48.1, which was a personal best.
Paul Stafford followed in 16th place at 24:22.7, Jacob Holmes crossed the line in 36th (24:55.4) and Gabriel Curtis rounded out the scoring five in 39th place with a time of 25:00.7.
After factoring in unattached runners, the Seminoles placed third as a team with a tally of 83 points behind No. 5 Stanford (32) and No. 20 Furman (61). FSU finished ahead of Charleston Southern (141) and No. 25 Southern Utah (174) among others.
“The guys did a really good job,” FSU head coach Bob Braman said. “We’ve got some room, we left a little meat on the bone, but our first two were really good, with Adriaan getting the win and Ahmed placing fourth. Ahmed ran his best, ever, and today was not a fast course.”
The 19th-ranked women’s squad finished second in the 6k behind the defending national champions and top-ranked BYU (24) with a total of 51 points.
The Seminoles established the team lead early on and built a 14-point edge over the Cougars by the 4k split, however BYU had a stronger finish to take the team win.
FSU was led by Lauren Ryan, who was running on her home course for the first time since the 2019 season. She crossed the line with at time of 20:50.8 for fifth place.
Finishing behind Ryan were freshman Agnes McTighe (21:01.4) in eighth and redshirt senior Amanda Beach (21:04.1) in ninth, who ran the majority as a pair.
Maudie Skyring made moves in the final 1K in order to place 13th (21:17.1) and Rebecca Clark (21:21.7) crossed the line in 16th place, just ahead of sophomore Alyson Churchill (21:22.1) in 17th.
“It was a good day overall,” Braman added. “We don’t usually race this hard this early, but once they get out here on their home course, you can’t hold them back too much.”
Both teams will travel to South Bend, Indiana, for the Notre Dame Invite on Oct. 1.
