LAKELAND, Fla. – The Florida Southern College women's cross country team put together an outstanding performance Friday morning in Lakeland as the Moccasins captured their best finish since 2009 at the 2024 Sunshine State Conference Championship. FSC took second overall led by a quartet of All-SSC performers. The Mocs edged third place Tampa by just one point.
Senior
Emma Mussante led the way Friday for the Mocs as she earned All-Championship Team honors as well as First Team All-SSC as she took fifth overall. The Middleburg, Fla. native completed the 6K distance in 22:20.8, just over 35 seconds behind the leader. Just two spots back in seventh, graduate student
Ellie Fluman earned both All-Championship and First Team All-SSC honors with her seventh-place showing. She stopped the clock at 22:26.6.
The next two FSC finishers just missed out on All-Championship Team honors but secured Second Team All-SSC accolades with their performances. Sophomore
Emma Pfeiffer and graduate student
Cheyenne Young finished within two spots of one another. Pfeiffer took 11
th overall with a time of 22:54.9 while Young placed 13
th in 23:00.7.
The final Moccasin scorer was a battle between sophomores
Emma Nales-Torchio and
Grace Reed. The pair were separated by just four tenths of a second. Nales-Torchio took 18
th overall in 23:22.2 while Reed came across in 19
th with a mark of 23:22.6. Senior
Mya Stam was also not far off as she came across in 21
st, just seven seconds behind the pair, despite running the majority of the race with just one shoe. Stam stopped the clock at 23:29.2.
The Mocs had nine more competitors who finished between 27
th and 80
th.
Jillian Thorning of Nova Southeastern took home the individual championship while the Sharks also captured the team championship. The Sharks tallied 31 total points to finish ahead of the Mocs by 23 points. FSC scored 54 points followed by third-place Tampa with 55 points.
The Florida Southern women's cross country team will now turn its attention to the 2024 NCAA South Region Championship which will be held Saturday, Nov. 9 in Huntsville, Ala.
FLORIDA SOUTHERN COLLEGE FINISHERS
