TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Jacksonville State brought the regular season to a close for cross country at the highly-competitive Florida State Invitational on Friday morning.
 
While regional powers LSU and host FSU took the team titles for the men's and women's events, JSU placed 16th and 17th respectively in each race. JSU's men just edged out ASUN foe Jacksonville with their 17 th spot, while the Gamecock ladies narrowly trailed JU and Florida Gulf Coast. The two teams can now solely focus on league opponents, with the ASUN Championship up next on the docket.
 
On Friday, freshman Jack Lowe continued his streak of leading JSU's men's team. His. 25:58 time was his third-straight sub-26 minute mark. Behind Lowe, sophomore Rodrigo Fraga clocked JSU's fifth-best 8K time of the season at 26:22, just three spots ahead of freshman Caden Meyer. Rounding out Jax State's scorers, freshman Steele Joiner turned in a career-best 27:30 time followed by sophomore Sam Green.
 
For the ladies, freshman Elsa Chan's 18:31 was good for 40th individually among nearly 300 competitors. She was followed closely by sophomore Bethelhem Manzano Jimeno with a season-best 18:41 time. Freshman Siobhan Balle trimmed another few seconds off her best 5K time for the third-straight meet, finishing with a 19:22 mark. The strong times continued as freshman Lindsay Fletcher and sophomore Sierra Wainer crossed the line together with new career marks of 19:50 and 19:51.
 
The strong underclassmen effort is the first women's 5K race to place all JSU scorers below 20 minutes in more than a decade. To signal the program's growth, JSU's sixth runner, Elizabeth Wetmore, did not officially score despite a sub-20 minute time of her own at 19:57. A mark that otherwise would have counted in any of JSU's 5K races in recent history.
 
"The women had a great race," said head coach Matthew Boone. "We wanted to focus on the second half of the race as a team and they followed those instructions perfectly. It was encouraging to have most of the group back and healthy."
 
"The men competed well, the back half of this course can punish you if aren't careful. It was important for them to learn how to prepare for a course like that, especially as we shift our focus to the postseason."
 
The Gamecocks new gear up for their final ASUN Championship on Oct. 29 in Huntsville. The conference championship will take place on the course JSU saw earlier this season at the North Alabama Showcase.