Women's cross country team places sixth in Holloway Collegiate opener

The Eastern Florida State College women's cross country team finished in sixth place at the Holloway Collegiate XC Opener hosted by Florida Southern on Friday.

The Titans had three runners finish in under 20 minutes at Holloway Park in Lakeland in the first event of the season.

"I wasn't even planning on having six healthy runners and certainly didn't think I would have five scoring so I am really happy with the girls," Eastern Florida State College women's cross country coach Doug Butler said. 

Sophomore Amelia Shephard led the charge, finishing 50^th overall with a time of 17 minutes and nine seconds. Teammate Rori Pandolfini finished 58^th overall in her first race with the Titans, finishing in 17:48. Trinity Trett placed 68^th overall at 19:27.

Marlie Gonzalez came back from injury to finish 71^st overall with a time of 20:29 while Maddison Lusk was 77^th at 22:03 and Abigail Derisme was next at 22:21.

Nova Southeastern won the event with Florida Southern and Tampa rounding out the top three.

Eastern Florida State College, who is ranked 22nd in the NJCAA Division I preseason poll, will run at the North Florida Invitational next Friday morning.