Corn, Wolf-Hardy, Morris lead AU men to third place-finish at Eye Opener Festival

Staff report

The trio of Eli Corn, Beck Wolf-Hardy and Olly Morris finished 18th, 19th and 20th, respectively, in the Eye Opener XC Festival on Friday, Sept. 4, in Spartanburg, S.C.

Corn ran the Roger Milliken 8,000-meter course in 26 minutes and 16 seconds; Wolf-Hardy posted a time of 26:26.2, and Morris got home in 26:27.3. They led AU to a third-place finish in the team standings behind winner Clemson and second-place Liberty University.

“I told the whole team when we huddled up at the start line how much this means to me and how much wearing this jersey means to me because of the people who wear it with me,” said Corn, the senior from East Paulding High School. “So when things got tough late into the race, that’s what kept me moving forward, just realizing who I’m running with and thinking everyone else on the team that I’m running for.”

AU freshman Alex Sotomayor Perez was next with a time of 26:46.1, good for 31st place. Perez was followed by Connor Mumford in 26:47.7 for a 33rd-place finish.

On the women’s side, in the 5K, Jaguar freshman Kaitlyn Lumbra finished 17th 18:48.1. Freshman Ella Gibbs was next, in 23rd place, with a time of 19:09.0. The Augusta women finished seventh in the team standings.

AU coach Jacob Burgamy was satisfied with the Jaguars competed in a meet that was a mixture of Division I and II schools in the season opener.

“Overall, it was a good start,” he said after Friday’s competition. “We had a couple of strong team finishes despite us resting several top-seven-caliber runners.”

As with every sporting event in the Southeast this weekend, the heat was a major factor in the Eye Opener.

“The extreme heat definitely led to a mixed bag of results,” Burgamy said. “We had some guys and gals break through and emerge as top-five to top-seven contenders, which is huge. But we also had some runners who were cramping up and bordering on heat exhaustion from the 98-degree heat with a heat index above 100 at race start.”

South Carolina won the women’s team title, with Clemson second and Liberty third.

Up next for AU will be the Queen City Invitational in Charlotte, N.C., on Sept. 11.

Note: Photo at the top of page by Peter Robbins from Unsplash.

AU’s Maria Biondollilo (5) finished in 20:12.5, good for 61st place, and Amelia Ogden ran 20:32.4 to finish 69th. (photo by Elkin Regina/special to the Bell Ringer)