Knights run at Walt Disney World

October 7, 2006

Men's Results
Women's Results

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla.—Freshman Pedro Tapia Jr. broke the 26 minute mark to lead the St. Andrews men’s cross country team to an eighth place finish out of 30 colleges in the university men’s 8k race at the Walt Disney World Cross Country Classic on Saturday. Junior Veronica Gobeyn led the Lady Knights to a 19th place finish out of 36 teams in the women’s 5k race.

Tapia, a native of Sanford, N.C., ran a PR of almost one minute better than his previous best to help the Knights to a second place finish out of all Division II colleges. No. 18 nationally ranked Florida Southern was the only D-II entrant ahead of SAPC. The University of Central Florida won the overall team title.

Tapia finished 12th out of 239 runners with an amazing time of 25:57. Tapia beat his St. Andrews PR by 59 seconds to finish third out of Division II entrants.

Only six seconds behind Tapia with his own PR was sophomore Mitch Cooper (Virginia Beach, Va.), who crossed the finish line in 14th overall with a speed of 26:03.

Senior Tim Bourke (Alden, N.Y.) and freshman Ryan Janes (Gaithersburg, Md.) also posted sub-27 minute times. Bourke finished 20th with a time of 26:16 while Janes posted in 48th at 26:57. Both Bourke and Janes’ times were PR’s.

Freshman James Lloyd (Lusby, Md.) finished the Knights scoring five runners with a time of 30:40. Freshman Brad McKee (Kings Mountain, N.C.) and junior Patrick Hogan (Denton, N.C.) concluded the running for SAPC with time of 31:25 and 31:58, respectively.

Gobeyn, a native of Mullins, S.C., led the Lady Knights with an 83rd place finish out of 287 runners with a time of 20:28. Gobeyn, who has improved on her 5k time in all three races of that distance this year, was only eight seconds off her PR.

St. Andrews finished 19th out of 36 teams with NCAA Division I Brigham Young University winning the team title. SAPC was the highest finishing CVAC School in both races.

Sophomore Leah Nicholson (Hendersonville, N.C.) was the second fastest Lady Knight at 20:56 while classmate Alyson Trovato (Cedar Park, Texas) crossed the finish line 10 seconds later at 21:06.

Freshman Rachael Ambrosia (San Jose, Calif.) posted a PR of 22:00 and junior Tessa Franz (Warren, Ore.) rounded out St. Andrews’ scoring-five at 22:34.

Other Lady Knights results included freshman Bonnie MacDonald (Carthage, N.C.) at 24:54; freshman Lauren Crabb (Kalamazoo, Mich.) at 27:47; junior Jordan Copp (Overland Park, Kan.) at 28:26; and sophomore India Hill (Somerset, Va.) at 29:04.

St. Andrews will compete in the 2006 CVAC Championships at the Milliken Research Park in Spartanburg, S.C. (hosted by Converse College) on Saturday, October 21. The Lady Knights take off at 8:15 a.m. while the men will try and defend their conference title at 8:45 a.m.