Falcons Hit the Beach

Daytona Beach, Fla. (Aug. 30, 2019) – The Daytona State College cross-country teams started the 2019 season by hosting a unique five-school event Thursday evening that was held directly on Daytona Beach. The Run the Beach Relay featured Daytona State, Florida State College at Jacksonville, Lake-Sumter State College, Pasco-Hernando State College, and Seminole State College. Both the Falcon men's and women's teams finished second.

"Typically women run a 5K and men run an 8K in our meets, but because this was our first competition, I had this kooky idea to do a beach relay," said Judy Wilson, DSC cross-country coach. "The men ran six miles and the women ran four miles, but they did it in teams of two and alternated running each mile."

Though typical cross-country meets use a team's top five runners to determine the team score, the Run the Beach Relay used each team's top three pairs as the counters.  Sisters Olivia and Grace D'Angelo from Pasco-Hernando won the women's side in a time of 26:57, and the Bobcats also claimed second and fifth place. That gave Pasco-Hernando eight points and the women's team title. The Daytona State women were led by Kylie DeDeo and Hannah Offenback, who clocked in at 28:01 and finished third. The pairing of Sara Mott and Moriya Patsch put together a time of 28:59 to finish seventh, and Shannen Brooks and Ashley Gonzalez combined for a time of 29:34 to place ninth. That gave the Falcons 20 points and a second-place team finish.  FSCJ finished third with 39 points.

On the men's side, Seminole State edged out Daytona State by a single point, 13-14, with only 22 seconds separating the schools' top three times. Seminole State runners Hillary Kandie and Yassin Raffay were the individual champions in 30:52, followed closely by Daytona State's Jesse Barral and Andy Martinez in 31:08. Seminole State then took third place behind Canaan St. Lewis and Amari Douglas, with Daytona State's Tyler Gilbert and Andrew Guillory just six seconds behind them in fourth place (32:26).

The Falcons' AJ Williams and Tyler Baker finished eighth in 33:06, and the pairing of Adam Mastrobuono and David Phillips was 11^th in 34:45. Lake-Sumter State finished third in the team standings with 18 points.

Daytona State is scheduled to continue its season at the Border Clash on Friday, September 6 in Valdosta, Georgia.

Tim Carpenter

Communications Manager