TAMPA - Robert Ormsby opened his sophomore year on a high note here Friday evening as the reigning Sunshine State Conference Freshman of the Year finished third overall and led Florida Southern to a second place finish as a team at the season opening University of South Florida Invitational held at the Claw golf course near the USF campus.

Ormsby, who is a native of Fort Myers, Fla., finished the 8K race in a time of 26:10.21, placing him third among 127 runners at the meet that featured 12 teams. Embry-Riddle, who is in its first year as a provisional member of the Sunshine State Conference, won the team title as their top five runners all placed inside the Top 10 to finish with 26 points. The Moccasins, who claimed its 16th all-time SSC title and its second-ever South Regional championship a year ago, scored 68 points to finish in second place among Division II teams.

Tampa was third with 86 points, Nova Southeastern was fourth with 92 points and Saint Leo was fifth with 112 points. Florida Tech was sixth with 170 points and Florida College was seventh among non-D-I teams. Florida Gulf Coast was the top finisher among Division I schools as they scored 34 points, while the University of Miami was second with 50 points.

In addition to Ormsby, junior Kyle Butler (Melbourne, Fla.) also finished in the Top 10 for the Mocs as he ran an 8K time of 28:18.13 to finish in eighth place overall.

Embry-Riddle's Paul McKenna was the meet's overall winner as he ran the 8K course in a time of 25:38.57, while Saint Leo's Rafal Matuszczak was second with a time of 25:58.25 and Florida International's Ronny Greenup was fourth with an 8K time of 26:13.62.

The third place finish by Ormsby was his highest in a collegiate cross country meet as his previous highest finish came at last season's UT Pre-Regional Meet as placed fourth overall.

Along with Ormsby and Butler, the next highest finishers for the Mocs were sophomore Jonathan Moses (Lawrenceville, Ga.), who finished 19th with a time of 26:55.19, and junior Jose Perez (Haines City, Fla.) as he ran an 8K time of 27:06.42 to finish 23rd. The fifth finisher for FSC was sophomore Cody Van Natter (Spring Hill, Fla.), who ran the 8K course in a time of 27:46.07 to finish 45th overall.

The next two Mocs to finish were junior Zach Hall (Weeki Wachee, Fla.) and freshman Christian Beauchemin (Pembroke Pines, Fla.), who ran the 8K course in 28:07.57 and 28:52.54, respectively, to finish 57th and 76th. 

FSC's final four competitors for the Mocs in the first event of the fall were freshman John Bryant (Valrico, Fla.), who was 87th overall with a time of 29:46.35, senior Andrew Coull (Royersford, Pa.), who was 89th overall with a personal-best 8K time of 29:57.51, freshman Oswaldo Zapata (Haines City, Fla.), who was 100th overall with a time of 30:42.56, and senior Logan Selzer (Wesley Chapel, Fla.) was 104th overall with an 8K time of 31:16.66.

FSC will return to the cross country course next Friday, Sept. 12 as they travel to Dover to compete in the UT Early Bird Invitational, which will be held at the Sydney Dover Trails.