SMRYNA, Del. – Coppin State's
Ronaldo Ball,
Mark London and
Kadeem Curtis were top 10 individual finishers for the men's and women's cross-country teams respectively at the DSU Farm Run Invitational Thursday afternoon.
This race was rescheduled from last Saturday and the athletes enjoyed the extra time to prepare. For Coppin State this was its first competition since September 19 when it raced at the Maryland Eastern Shore Cappie Anderson Invitational.
Ball finished the eight-kilometer course in 27 minutes, 27.60 seconds to place seventh overall.
Mark London was ninth in a time of 27:45.77. They helped the short-handed Eagles finish third in the seven-team race with 89 points. Maryland Eastern Shore was first followed by Norfolk State. Coppin State finished ahead of Wesley, Morgan State, Delaware State and The Lincoln University.
"Going into the race we felt pretty confident," Ball said. "We had a light workout on Wednesday and I felt that made a difference for us today. Although a lot of our guys didn't have personal bests today, coach said he was very satisfied with the final mile. Our goal now is to take that into our next cross-country meet."
Both teams had five runners compete because the rescheduled meet conflicted with some of the student-athletes' mid-term examinations.
Michael James was 14th overall in a time of 28:19.25.
Fabian Hayles and Devin Teagle ran strong races to help the Eagles.
On the women's side, Curtis turned in a personal best performance of 20:48.94, which was ninth overall. She was ecstatic once she learned her time and place. Her teammate,
Lunnise Gibson also finished among the top 20, placing 18th (21:50.25).
"I am excited and it's a big relief for me," Curtis said of her personal best performance. "I was happy with my race today, but I know I have some more work to do. I believe those two weeks off really did me a lot of justice because it got my legs refreshed."
Members of Coppin State's women's squad will run Saturday morning at the Goucher Invitational beginning at 11:15 a.m. Both squads will return to Delaware State to compete on Saturday, October 17. That will be the final tune-up before the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) championships on October 31.
Return to Coppin State's website Friday afternoon for a complete photo gallery and video highlights of this meet.
