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By Pat Salvas
UCFAthletics.com
TITUSVILLE, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) - The UCF cross country team continued its early-season success with a second-place showing at the FLRunners.com Invitational Friday evening. With a sixth-place showing, senior Ocean Cohen finished as the top runner for the Knights for the fourth time in as many races this fall, crossing in 18:55.94 to help her team to 61 points.
"I saw some good things tonight from the team," cross country coach Paul Brown said. "There is still some work to do, but we are still very focused on the Conference USA meet at the end of the season. We can use this meet and those in the coming weeks to continue to prepare and get better for the conference championships."
Alyssa Franks finished ninth overall and was the second UCF runner to cross the line in 19:17.54. Senior Carley Dart finished just behind Franks, crossing as the 10th overall runner with a time of 19:19.93. Danielle Scaffidi was the fourth member of the team to finish in the scoring, posting an 18th-place showing in n20:16.59, while Mason Gardberg finished 21st overall in 20:32.14 to earn 19 points.
Jacksonville won the race with 15 points as its runners claimed the top five spots in the race. The Black and Gold posted 61 points to finish second, while its average time of finish (19:40.00) was 55 seconds better than third-place St. Leo.
Freshmen Sierra Solaun (23rd, 20:37.16), Katie Homme (32nd, 21:02.14), Erica Winston (33rd, 31:03.03) and Ne'Ausha Logan (35th, 21:09.73) were the next group of UCF runners to finish the 5K course.
The Knights will look to remain on their hot streak when they return to action next weekend. UCF doesn't have to go very far as it will run in the Disney Cross Country Classic in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., near the Wide World of Sports.