Men and Women Open Cross Country Seasons

Adam Hunt
Sports Columnist / Reporter


The Men's and Women's cross country teams both began their respective seasons at the University of Chattanooga Opener on Friday.

The Bears had to contend with some stiff competition against powerhouses Middle Tennessee, Tennessee at Chattanooga and conference rival Kennesaw State.
Tennessee State also took part to round out the five team competition.

The meet kicked off with the women's 2 mile race. Freshman Kacie Niemann turned in a strong 5th place finish followed by four more top 25 finishes by Clara Densmore (21st), Karen Dorris (23rd), Kasie Knapper (24th) and Alesa Webber (25th).

At the start, Niemann was tailing the lead pack and ran a conservative first mile. However, Niemann then found the accelerator and made a move towards the leaders.
In a surprise move, Freshman Knapper made a statement by finishing in the fourth position for the team in her first collegiate race.

In the Men's 5K race, Freshmen Jacob Law and Chris Svidesskis came out swinging at the start, but were left in smoke by Festus Chemaoi and William Songock from Middle Tennessee who powered past them.

Law and Svidesskis came through the mile marker in approximately 5:03, running with the front group with another freshman, Andrew Weems hot on their heels.
The freshmen were followed by Seniors Roland Adams and Marc Kushinka who ran more conservative opening miles. Adams and Kushinka both made their move later in the race to overtake Weems, but fell short of catching Svidesskis and Law.

Law finished with 12 points and in the first team position for Mercer, followed by Svidesskis with 14 points, Adams with 16, Kushinka with 18 and the final Mercer scorer was Weems who scored 21 points. Freshmen Taylor Snyder and Trey Ellis rounded out the Mercer seven.

Coach Ryan Bailey said afterwards: “I am happy with the performance at UTC. I did not taper the team much for this race. I think they performed quite well considering the course and the tough workout we did earlier in the week."

The Bears are back in action when they host the RunFit Sports Invitational, an event both the men and women will be looking to dominate.