Men's Cross Country Ousts Florida and Georgia Tech at Mountain Dew Invitational

Friday, September 15

Gainesville, Fla.

7:40 a.m.

University of North Florida

Mountain Dew Invitational

Aidan O'Gorman and Robert Pedroza finishing 1-2 at Mountain Dew Invite

Men's Cross Country Ousts Florida and Georgia Tech at Mountain Dew Invitational

9/15/2023 4:00:00 PM | Men's Cross Country

Final Results

Aidan O'Gorman, Robert Pedroza Go 1-2 in Season Debut 8k Race

GAINESVILLE, Fla. - North Florida men's cross country finished with two runners in the top five and five among the top 11 individuals to secure the team win at the Mountain Dew Invitational hosted by Florida on Friday morning.

Aidan O'Gorman, although unattached from the team score, turned in the top time among 178 qualified runners at 24:01.0 in the 8k race. Robert Pedroza followed just behind O'Gorman as the runner-up and the top team placement, as well as Onix Ortiz Vazquez making his way to place fifth overall.

Cole Perry, William Sinclair and Aiden Arnold filled out the remaining spots scored to finish over Georgia Tech and Florida. A few newcomers also had stellar runs for the team with Sinclair placing 10th and Ilias El Khattabi finishing top 25, as well as Paul Lespasio making his Osprey debut in XC in 23rd.

FINISH LINE

This is the second consecutive season that the men have debuted its season as the top team after winning the UNF Invitational last year and the Mountain Dew Invitational this season.
This was also the first race of the 40th anniversary of UNF athletics, which was started by cross country being UNF's first sporting event in 1983.
O'Gorman didn't miss a beat coming off his NCAA Championship appearance during the track season with his second-career XC win.
He maintained a top-three position from the 2k mark on and never looked back after finishing with a season debut time of 24:01.0.
Pedroza had a strong race as well with a top-two time from the 2500m on, as he and O'Gorman went back and forth for him to ultimately finish second overall in the 8k at 24:06.1.
Ortiz Vazquez crushes his 8k personal-best time at 24:22.1 to place in the top five on Friday morning.
Perry was right behind Ortiz Vaquez in seventh at 24:35.1, while Sinclair and Arnold finished together for 10th and 11th overall.
Lespasio and Ilias El Khattabi put seven Osprey runners, as well as O'Gorman, in the top 25 individuals to give UNF momentum moving forward from its season-opening win.

PIGG'S POINTS

"It's always fun to go to Gainesville. I felt like the men had a really good meet. We didn't know exactly how good we were going to be. This year, some of our young guys have become juniors and redshirt juniors, and they have stepped up and did pretty well. Robert [Pedroza] was the number one runner. He did a great job and led the way for us and he ran with Aidan [O'Gorman], who ran unattached because we're considering redshirting him this season.

Onix [Ortiz Vazquez] had a great meet as well and ran really well for us. Cole [Perry], a sophomore, really ran his best collegiate cross country race. Aiden [Arnold], same deal, those guys have been working hard. You hope that translates, but sometimes it takes longer for you to see results in performance, but we saw it today and it was just really cool. I know a lot of people work hard, but these guys are working hard, living clean, hungry and driven, and they did a great job for us. Newcomer, Will [Sinclair], was up there to round out the top.

Georgia Tech has a really good team, as does Florida. They're solid and there are a lot of good young guys, so that was a really good win for us. It's really encouraging and I really look forward to the rest of the races we have. We'll head to Missouri in two weeks and see how we can do up there against some people that we don't see on a regular basis and I look forward to it."
-- head coach Jeff Pigg