OAKWOOD, Ga. -- The Clark Atlanta University men's & women's cross-country team traveled to North Georgia to compete in the UNG XC invitational hosted by the University of North Georgia on Friday, September 13^th.
 
WOMEN'S 5K RACE
The women's team finished in ninth place overall out of the eleven teams competing.  Our panther top finisher for the women's 5K is again Aliyah Jackson finishing in 33^rd place with a time of (21:48.7). Our second panther finisher is Lailah Sellers making her cross country debut with a time of (23:15.5) As a force to be reckoned with during last year's track & field season in the 5K, there was a lot of anticipation for her transition into cross country. "My event went smooth, I started in the front for the first two laps, then on the last third lap I started to slow down which made me come 47^th out of 77 girls… on the straight away I made sure to run my hardest".  When asked what her goals were for her first 5K with the cross-country team, Sellers responds "My goal was to have a good personal record and a good time… my original 5K time from the SIAC Track & Field conference last season was (26:30.68), so I've made a lot of progress since then:". "My first cross country meet went good, but there's always room for progress so it's time to get to work and grind".  Coming in across the line together with close times, Karon Warren (28:46.9) and Danielle Thompson (29:15.6). Followed by another set of panthers to close out the 5K, Malachia Abney (30.13.6) and Nasjae Baker (32:01.9).
 
MEN'S 8K
The men's team finished in seventh place overall out of the eight teams competing. Following up from last week's meet, our panther top finisher is again Elijah Hargrove, coming across the finish with a time of (28:55.2). "Last meet when I finished the race, I wasn't really tired, so I knew I had more give in the race, so this week I pushed myself and dropped by my time by a minute from last week" says Hargrove. When asked what some of his weak points from this meet were, the team captain responds "The fourth mile I got a little too comfortable, I should've used more energy, I could've dropped more of my time otherwise... Personally, the goal I set for myself was to finish in the "28" minute range and I did... every meet I'm trying to drop my time to get to 27 minutes by October". "My teammates tried hard this week and I'm proud of the effort everyone gave, next week I want everyone to push themselves to drop a minute off their time…. By October everyone should be between (28–32) minute range. Fighting behind Hargrove in 38^th place is Tyree Tillis with a time of (31:25.0), followed by Ethan Dorset with a time of (34:55.9). Closing out for the men's 8K was Christion Landers and Nicholas Barnett with times of (36:30.7) and (40:35.1).
 
UP NEXT
Next Saturday, September 21^st, the Panthers are heading to Macon, Georgia as they compete in the Julius Johnson Invitational, hosted by Mercer University.