On December 16th, a few of Montreat College's distance runners joined a huge field of competitors for the 2007 Jacksonville Half-Marathon. Freshman Ben Hall, running in his first ever half-marathon, finished 7th overall out of 1300 total finishers in an impressive 1:18:30. Hall was only 50 seconds off of the NAIA Track & Field's "B" standard for qualifying for the NAIA Marathon Championships. "I was incredibly pleased with Ben's effort. Given that this is his first ever half-marathon, and the miserable weather, I thought he did a fantastic job," said Coach Larios.

On the women's side, Talisa Bishop ran an impressive 1:29:32 to finish 4th out of 651 total females (35th overall).  Hall and Bishop won the first place trophy for their respected age groups.  Also running her first half-marathon was freshman Elyse Gildernew.  She completed the 13.1 miles in 1:50:57, to finish 2nd in her age group.

"I thought Elyse ran great too.  This was her first half-marathon and she's committed to improving.  I've been really impressed with her development.  All in all, Bishop's race was a nice starting point for the track season, so I'm really anxious to see how well she and the others can run on the track," added Larios.

The team will begin it's first ever indoor track season at East Tennessee State University this January.

Full Results can bee seen here:  http://1stplacesports.com/jm07halfres.htm

Written By: Jose Larios
Posted By: Jose Larios
Date Posted: 1/3/2008
Number of Views: 610