This week the Florida State College at Jacksonville men and women's cross country teams traveled to Apalachee Regional Park for the FCSAA/NJCAA Region 8 Cross Country Championships.

A record 162 athletes were representing over 15 teams that competed in the Region 8 championship. The FSCJ men's team was led by Ashton Curl who set a blistering pace reaching the 5,000m in a personal record (PR) of 17:25. He then made his way to an 11^th place finish on the hilly 8,000m course in a time of 28:10. His performance help propelled the men's team to a 3^rd place finish behind #4 ranked Daytona State and #11 ranked Pasco Hernando State and ahead of the #19 team from Lake Sumter State. Ashton was followed closely by Jaxon McKim, Logan Moore (PR), Luke Williams, Wyatt Dugan, Christian Mayfield (PR), Bryce Nobles (PR), and Kaydan Bowie (PR). His time moved him to #4 on the Top 10 All-Time list. The men's team had average time of 29:06 and a pack time of 1:57.

The women's team was led this week for the 2^nd time this season by sophomore Kayleigh McWatters. Her time of 21:18 moved her to the #5 spot on the Women's Top 10 list and led the FSCJ team to a 5^th place finish behind four nationally ranked teams and ahead of nationally ranked College of Central Florida.  Kayleigh was followed closely by Lynn Winkler, Zahir Miller, Ashtyn Parsons, Hailly Guillen-Polanco and Tytiyonna Nesmith (PR).

"We love this course and we always race well here, " commented Jody Hale, FSCJ cross country coach. "We had seven PR's and four season best times this morning. That created changes in the TOP 10 list and Region 8 is the toughest in the country."