Akigawa, Thompson emerge top MOC runners at Greater Louisville Classic

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on October 1, 2012 1:49 PM

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MOC Sports Information

LOUISVILLE, KY. -- Mount Olive competed against some of the best cross country runners at all NCAA levels during the Greater Louisville Classic contested at Tom Sawyer State Park.

Freshman Aki Kitagawa placed 48th out of 362 runners in his division, finishing ahead or more than 100 Division I competitors.

The teams were split into three divisions, gold, blue and silver.

In the blue division, Kitagawa completed the 8-kilometer course in 25:49.10 in the blue division. The freshman finished less than 30 seconds outside the top 10.

Senior Ronnie Sturgill (25:58.15) followed close behind in 58th; followed by freshman Dylan Lafond (26:04.08) in 70th; Mike Munoz (26:21.63) in 98th; Erasmo Ordonez (26:35.34); Jamar Davis (27:12.68) in 221st; and Cameron Turner (27:21.46) in 234th.

In the team event, Mount Olive finished with 393 points. The Trojans finished ahead of Division I programs Evansville, Detroit Mercy, Saint Louis, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Howard, Chattanooga, Vanderbilt, Lipscomb, Bradley, Marquette and Austin Peay. In all, 46 teams competed in the division. Eastern Kentucky won the division with 96 points.

In the silver division, the Trojans placed 20th out of 38 schools with 487 points. Spartanburg Methodist won with 44 points thanks to five top-15 finishers.

Individually, Steven Greco was the Trojans' top finisher, placing 37th out of 362 competitors with a time of 27:18.73. Fellow freshman Cirilo Perez (28:21.82) finished 97th; followed by Sean Brown (28:22.07) in 98th; Mike Cherry (29:08.31) in 140th; Jordan Willett (29:42.61) in 173rd and Nick Springston (30:33.73) in 221st.

MOC junior Amber Thompson beat out 75 Division I competitors during the women's portion of the Classic, while Mount Olive finished 34th out of 43 teams -- 23 of which were Division I programs.

Thompson led the way for the Trojans with a time of 19:21.84, good enough for 111th out of 337 runners. Fellow junior Chelsea Long (19:35.08) was 141st; followed by Megan Bucek (19:44.64) in 160th; Christina Jordan (20:44.96) in 269th; Crissy Petro (21:13.91) in 287th; Courtney Siefert (21:28.02) in 294th; Emily Shaw (21:45.38) in 303rd; and Logan Shirley (25:27.26) in 335th.

Mount Olive returns to action October 12 in the Queens University Invitational.