Former Generals shine for UTC cross country

John Payne led the Mocs to a third place finish Saturday night at the Brooks Memphis Twilight Classic while transfer Emily Poole led the women to a sixth place finish.

“Both teams finished well,” Chattanooga head coach Andy Meyer said. “They followed the early season race plan and started conservatively and finished strong.”

The men were third out of 18 teams, finishing behind Middle Tennessee (25) and Ole Miss (47) with 124 points. Payne was 15th overall with a time of 20:44.68 on the four-mile course. Sophomore Ryan Gebelein, a former Heritage High School standout, was the second UTC runner across the line at 21:01.19 followed by junior Mark Britt at 21:07.03.

“We had a great pack,” Meyer said. “John carried over his track season to cross country and was a solid 15 overall. Our transfer from Ringgold, Ryan Geberlein, was impressive at our second man. Mark Britt ran much better than all of last year and Nathan Watson ran a good race. Freshman Jake Ethridge was impressive in his college debut and Brennan Huber was right with him.

“We didn’t run a couple of guys due to injuries. I’m very excited to see what the season holds for them when Gavin [Hasty] and Richard [Guiry] return.

In the women’s race, Poole finished 11th overall and ninth in the scoring with a time of 18:36.90 on the 3-kilometer course. Sophomore Hannah Caldwell was the Chattanooga finisher at 19:14.62 followed by sophomore Nicole Buehrle at 19:19.70.

“Emily led us with a strong race,” Meyer said of the ex-Heritage General, who previously ran at Dalton State. “Hannah Caldwell ran better than last year already in one race this year and Nicole Buerhle, who didn’t run cross country last year, comes out in her first college race and finished third for us.

“Freshman Sophia Neglia ran great for her first college race and Haley Morris was her usual solid self. The ladies ran a very smart and solid race for the first one of the year.”

UAB took first with 56 points followed by Ole Miss (74), MTSU (92), Arkansas State (106) and Memphis (125) in fifth.