Men's Cross Country | 10/14/2019 12:47:00 PM

SALSIBURY, N.C. – The Savannah State men's cross country team finished a close 4 seconds behind leader Newberry College in the 2019 Livingstone College Invitational, garnering a second place finish with a team time of 2:30:02.

Newberry earned the top spot with a team time of 2:26:40, leading the 12-team field in the men's 8000 meter run (8k). SSU was led by senior Abbas Abbkar, who was named the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) Male Runner of the Week last week. Abbkar finished in third place in the individual results with a time of 27:46.0, with an average of 5:35.1 a mile.

Savannah State senior Sahlu Atakilti finished in fourth place behind Abbkar with a time of 28:26.8. Suheib Mohamed finished in sixth with a time of 28:33.8. Freshman Erik Roberts finished with a time of 32:00.1, followed by Djangmah Nartmartey (33:15.9).

The Savannah State women's cross country team finished third overall in the women's 5000 meter run (5k) with a time 1:56:43. Fayetteville State won the 11-team women's field with a time of 1:50:12, followed by Newberry (1:56:43), who edge out SSU with a score of 81 to the Lady Tigers 82 for the second place award despite running the same time.

Freshman Kayla Chance led the Lady Tigers with a fourth place finish, running a 21:55.3, averaging 7:00.0 a mile. Junior Karen Perez followed with a sixth place finish, running a 22:04.1, averaging 7:06.1 a mile in the race. Freshman Christy Turner ran a 23:46.2 in the meet, followed by Simone Johnson (24:00.5), and Jonica Hill (31:18.6),

Savannah State men's and women's cross country close out the 2019 regular season with the USCB Sand Shark Invitational on Oct. 19 in Bluffton, S.C.

Livingstone College Invitational Full Results