LAKELAND, Fla. –
Emma Mussante and
Ellie Fluman pace Florida Southern women's cross country at the 2023 season opener at Holloway Park where the Moccasins placed third out of six teams at the FSC Mocs Kick-Off race Friday morning.
"Taking down a higher-ranked SSC squad like Embry Riddle is a bright spot of optimism for our ladies," Head Coach
Stephanie Bylander said. "Emma "Moose" Mussante and
Ellie Fluman signaled that they're read to compete with the individuals in the SSC. Freshmen
Grace Reed, who like Luke Kaelin, is coming back from a catastrophic accident as a HS junior, led our newcomers to an impressive collegiate start."
Emma Mussante paced the team with a ninth place finish out of 64 total runners on the waterlogged course. The junior from Middleburg, Fla. finished the 4.2K course in 15:45.25, just ahead of redshirt junior
Ellie Fluman in 10
th place (15:46.93).
Behind Mussante and Fluman,
Grace Reed completed her first collegiate race in 16:03.78, good enough for 14
th place.
Kira Mothershed also ran in her first race as a Moccasins and took 17
th place (16:08.37), finishing two places ahead of junior
Mya Stam in 19
th place (16:10.87), to close out the scorers for the Mocs.
Emma Pfeiffer and
Emma Nales-Torchio joined Reed and Mothershed in completing their first race of their collegiate careers with 21
st and 22
nd place finishes, respectively. Pfeiffer ran the course at 16:14.42, ahead of Nales-Torchio's 16:19.00 time.
The 2023 Sunshine State Conference favorites, the University of Tampa, opened the year with a win capturing first place Friday morning with 20 team points, while the Spartans went 1-2 on the course with Olivia Harp garnering the individual medalist honors, completing the course in 15:12.47. Two seconds exactly behind Harp, UT teammate Aspen Gordon finished in second at 15:14.47.
The University of South Florida took second as a team (45 points), ahead of Florida Southern in third, Embry-Riddle in fourth (98 points), South Florida State College in fifth (160 points), and Central Florida in sixth (166 points).
The Moccasins will split race weekends on Sept. 15 when the team will compete at the Flacon Classic at the UM Cross Country Course in Montevallo, Ala. and the Mountain Dew Invitational at the Mark Bostick Golf Course in Gainesville, Fla. hosted by the University of Florida.
