Naples Standard

Florida Gulf Coast University Athletics issued the following announcement on Nov. 11.

Eagles have seven harriers competing in Huntsville.

The FGCU men's and women's cross country programs will head up to Huntsville, Alabama, for the 2021 NCAA South Regional Meet on Friday morning. North Alabama will host the race at the John Hunt Cross Country Course in partnership with the Huntsville Sports Commission and the City of Huntsville.

The women's 6K will begin at 8:30 AM ET, while the men's 10K will start at 9:30 AM ET. On the women's side, 40 teams featuring 295 student-athletes will be competing, while on the men's side, 29 teams with 249 racers will toe the starting line.

Live results will be available for both races through https://live.xpresstiming.com/meets/11059.

FGCU has four men and three women racing at the competitive regional meet.

Franklin Caceres (Cape Coral, Fla./Ida S. Baker HS)

Benjamin Hermiston (Sherrill, Iowa/Dubuque Hempstead HS)

Osman Humeida (South Riding, Va./Freedom HS/Virginia Tech)

Bradyn Ricca (Merritt Island, Fla./Merritt Island HS)

Mary McCullough (Highlands Ranch, Colo./Mountain Vista HS/Colorado Mesa University)

Blake Petrick (St. John's, Fla./Creekside HS)

Karley Piers (Falmouth, Maine/Falmouth HS)

This will be the first time racing at the NCAA Regional for each with the exception of Humeida who competed at the 2018 NCAA Southeast Regional during his redshirt freshman season at Virginia Tech.

The Eagles are coming off a fourth-place finish for the men's team at the ASUN Championship and a 12th-place finish for the women's side which was not at full strength due to injuries. Humeida earned All-ASUN Second Team honors with a 13th-place individual finish and he broke the FGCU 8K record with his time of 24 minutes, 31.4 seconds.

Piers led the women's team with a time of 18 minutes, 42.6 seconds which was the fourth fastest 5K time for a FGCU freshman in program history. She now has two of the top freshman 5K times in program history after she opened the year with a time of 18 minutes, 39.1 seconds at the FAU Invite.

This will mark the first time since 2018 that FGCU has competed in the NCAA Regional Meet and the ninth overall under head coach Cassandra Goodson. In that span, the Eagles have had three members of the NCAA South All-Region Team: Carley Lutzlow (16th, 2018), Argeo Cruz (25th, 2013) and Kelly Perzanowski (14th, 2013).

Original source can be found here.