MONTEVALLO, Ala. – Junior cross country runners Andonet Cheruiyot and Onesmus Kemboi both recorded top 5 performances in their respective races to lead the South Alabama women and men to strong finishes Friday morning at the Blazer Classic held at the Montevallo Course. South's women finished tied for third with Charlotte in the 6k at the meet, while the Jaguar men were fourth in the 8k.

Cheruiyot set a new personal best and crossed the line second with a time of 20:49.25, while Kemboi placed fourth with a personal-best time of 23:57.34.

Date: 10/18
Meet: Blazer Classic
Host: UAB
Place: Montevallo Course (Montevallo, Ala.)

TOP 10 INDIVIDUALS
WOMEN'S – 6K
1. Jodie Judd, Florida State (20:36.17); 2. Andonet Cheruiyot, SOUTH ALABAMA (20:49.25); 3. Sandra Szpott, Southern Mississippi (20:52.26); 4. Yasmine Abbes, Florida State (20:56.40); 5. Erin Phelps, Florida State (20:56.86); 6. Ava Peeples, Florida State (21:04.37); 7. Sylvia Russel, Mississippi State (21:09.68); 8. Bridgett Abbatiello, Charlotte (21:10.82); 9. Chandler Horton, Charlotte (21:16.35); 10. Mary Grace Strozier, Samford (21:18.15)

MEN'S – 8K
1. Stephen Jones, Mississippi State (23:51.98); 2. Cole Bullock, Unattached (23:55.60); 3. Paul Arredondo, Charlotte (23:55.98); 4. Onesmus Kemboi, SOUTH ALABAMA (23:57.34); 5. Kaleb McLeod, Belmont (23:58.34); 6. Nickolas Scudder, Charlotte (23:59.92); 7. Alex Cornwell, Charlotte (24:02.09); 8. Ben Naeger, Belmont (24:05.55); 9. Dillon Dean, Samford (24:15.44); 10. Payton Gleason, Memphis (24:16.72)

TEAM FINISHES
WOMEN'S – 6K
1. Florida State (32 pts); 2. Southern Mississippi (94 pts); T3. Charlotte (130 pts)^; T3. SOUTH ALABAMA (130 pts)^; 5. Mississippi State (132 pts); 6. Samford (191 pts); 7. Alabama (207 pts); T8. Memphis (219 pts)#; T8. Belmont (215 pts)#; 10. UAB (226 pts); 11. Kennesaw State (312 pts); 12. North Alabama (321 pts); 13. Florida Atlantic (326 pts); 14. Troy (357 pts); 15. Northern Colorado (456 pts); 16. Montevallo (463 pts); 17. Mercer (468 pts); 18. Nicholls State (480 pts); 19. Birmingham-Southern (593 pts); 20. Spartanburg Methodist (638 pts); 21 Marion Military Institute (685 pts); 22. Fort Valley State (701 pts); 23. Mississippi Valley State (716 pts); Mississippi Univ. for Women (734 pts)

Teams competing, but not scoring and order of finish: Point University, Lipscomb, Jefferson State CC, Huntington College, Lawson State CC

^ – Charlotte held the tiebreaker and was placed ahead of South Alabama in the standings.
# – Memphis held the tiebreaker and was placed ahead of Belmont in the standings.

MEN'S – 8K
1. Charlotte (38 pts); 2. Belmont (62 pts); 3. Memphis (99 pts); 4. SOUTH ALABAMA (104 pts); 5. Mississippi State (127 pts); 6. Samford (142 pts); 7. North Alabama (203 pts); 8. Montevallo (215 pts); 9. Mercer (268 pts); 10 Troy (278 pts); 11. Kennesaw State (283 pts); 12. Florida Atlantic (350 pts); 13. Lipscomb (385 pts); 14. Nicholls State (406 pts); 15. Point University (446 pts); 16. Spartanburg-Methodist (482); 17. Marion Military Institute (489 pts); 18. Birmingham-Southern (543 pts); 19. Fort Valley State (608 pts); 20. Mississippi Valley State (610 pts); 21. Miles College (654 pts)

Teams competing, but not scoring and order of finish: Lawson State CC, Huntington College, Alabama, Jefferson State CC

SOUTH ALABAMA INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCES
WOMEN'S – 6K
2. Andonet Cheruiyot (20:49.25); 11. Carolien Millenaar (21:20.97); 25. Silje Linstad (21:37.10); 31. Alyse Henry (21:42.03); 63. Susanna Ponder (22:17.33); 74. Abbey Weitenbeck (22:27.93); 83. Adele Magaud (22:38.72); 138. Shay Lee (23:58.92); 147 Elizabeth Holcomb (24:14.73)

MEN'S – 8K
4. Onesmus Kemboi (23:57.34); 14. Warno Potgieter (24:31.97); 19. Thomas Sand (24:42.64); 37. 37. Nate Pudner (25:17.76); 41. Lance Cunigan (25:28.41); 50. Charlie Slaughter (25:48.23); 63. Caleb Smith (26:02.64)

NOTES
- Cheruiyot has now finished either second or third in each of her four races this fall, and the junior has now finished inside the top five in seven of her 11 races as a Jaguar.
- Cheruiyot was one of four South Alabama women to set new personal best in the 6k on Friday. Cheruiyot shaved 32 seconds off of her previous best set last season at the NCAA Regional.
- Also setting personal best for the Jag women were Millenaar, Lindstad and S. Pudner. Lee matched her personal best in the event, also set at last fall's meet hosted by UAB.
- Linstad's new personal best (21:37.10) was nearly a minute better than the previous mark which was on the same course last season.
- Both the South Alabama women have finished either first or fourth in all four meets this fall.
- All seven male Jaguar runners set new personal best in the 8k race and 63rd or better out of the 182-runner field.
- Kemboi recorded his ninth career top 10 finish and he has now finished inside the top 25 in 14 of his 15 collegiate races.
- The 14th-place finish marked the ninth top 15 mark of Potgieter's career at South.
- Friday also marked the sixth top 20 performance for Sand.

THEY SAID IT
Head coach Parker Cowles
- On his thoughts on the two team's performances: "Both teams were up against very good competition. There were a lot of teams ranked in our region and a ranked team from outside our region in Charlotte, who has a very good women's team and an excellent men's team. I thought that we stacked up pretty well against the field.
"This was our toughest race so far and some of our men, I think, got out a little hard early on and didn't have their best days, but what was really impressive was that even with a few of us off, as a team, our depth was strong enough to really pick each other up and helped make sure our team performance is where it needs to be. As we get ready for conference, that's what's going to be important because not everyone is going to have a perfect day, but when you've got the depth for athletes to fill in spots so you can move up, that's how you win titles. It was good to see the team do that today. I thought it was an excellent performance."
- On building off of and using this performance as you prepare to contend for the league title: "At the beginning of the season, people talked about our women's team as being contenders because it was apparent that we had added a strong recruiting class to the group in addition to having some good returners who were kind of coming around.

"I do feel that the women are in a good spot and the depth is terrific. They will have to go up against some very good teams in App State and Arkansas State in particular who have looked tough this fall. We've got to be able to execute and a performance like today's is what we are going to need if we want to be among those teams. Even if someone has an off day, we have to have runners ready to go and fill in positions.

"On the men's side, the conference is quite competitive. There are very good runners up front and some very good teams. That said, by what I saw today out of our team, we are capable of running with anybody and I hope this meet provides our guys with that confidence and helps them feel good about what they are capable of doing, because I do feel that maybe some people might have slept on us earlier in the fall, but now we are a team that is capable of beating some people. It's a lot of fun to be in this position."

UP NEXT
- South Alabama will open up postseason competition Saturday, Nov. 2 at the Sun Belt Conference Championships held at Nash Farms Battlefield Park in Hampton, Ga.

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