M. Cross Country
Mocs Finish Second at SSC Championships
Four runners place in Top 10
David Tomchinsky finished in third place overall at the 2012 SSC Championships.ORLANDO - Buoyed by placing four runners in the Top 10, the Florida Southern Men's Cross Country team scored 47 points to finish in second place out of six teams here Saturday morning at the 2012 Sunshine State Conference Championships held at the UCF Complex and hosted by Rollins College.
It was the second consecutive second place finish for the Moccasins, who also took home second place at last year's SSC Championships after falling to Tampa. At this year's championship, Nova Southeastern won the team title as the Sharks scored 41 points after placing three of its runners in the Top 10.
The Mocs were paced by the performance of junior David Tomchinsky (Englewood, Fla.), who ran the 8K race in a time of 26:13.80 to finish in third place overall. Tomchinsky's time was a season best in an 8K race.
Less than 18 seconds separated the top three finshers in Saturday's race as Florida Tech's Chris Cacciapaglia was the individual SSC Champion as he ran the UCF course in a time of 25:56.60, while Nova Southeastern's Kevin Meagher finished in second place as he ran a time of 26:06.30.
In addition to NSU and FSC in the team competition, Tampa, who entered the meet at the favorite, finished in third place overall as the Spartans scored 67 points, while Florida Tech finished fourth with 78 points. Saint Leo (110 points) and Rollins (188 points) finished fifth and sixth respectively.
Joining Tomchinsky in the Top 10 was junior Chris Yanichko (Grove City, Ohio), who ran the 8K course in a time of 26:33.00 to finish in sixth place, while freshman Jose Perez (Haines City, Fla.) ran a season-best 8K time of 26:26.70 to finish in eighth place and junior Chris Trebilcock (Alachua, Fla.) completed the UCF course in a season-best 8K time of 26:36.10 to finish in ninth place.
Six of the seven Mocs that ran in Saturday's meet all ran season-best 8K times.
Other finishers for the Mocs were freshman Zach Hall (Wachee, Fla.), who ran a season-best 8K time of 27:36.30 to finish in 21st place overall, while sophomore Logan Selzer (Wesley Chapel, Fla.) ran a season-best time 8K time of 28:18.50 to finish in 30th place overall and sophomore Andrew Coull (Royersford, Pa.) ran a season-best 8K time of 31:00.90 to finish in 46th place overall.
The top 10 finishers at the meet were named to the All-SSC Championship Team as the Mocs represented were Tomchinsky, Yanichko, Perez and Trebilcock.
FSC will return to action on Saturday, Nov. 3 as they travel to Huntsville, Ala., to compete in the NCAA Division II South Regional Championships.
