BIRMINGHAM (Oct. 31, 2020) – The FIU cross country team competed at the 2020 Conference USA Championships in Birmingham, Alabama, Saturday morning, with the men and women both placing 10th.

Eliseo Torres led the Panther men with a time of 25:43, while Andrea Loizidou paced the women with a finish of 22:45.
 
"I'm proud of the efforts of both squads this morning," said head distance coach Jermaine Felix. "We had a lot of young runners step up today, and I'm excited about their future moving forward."  

CHAMPIONSHIP CENTRAL 
RESULTS 
PHOTOS

Freshman Lance Grainger improved by over a minute from his debut performance at Florida State, breaking 27 with a time of 26:55. Andoni Mercado also improved from 27:53 to 27:12 between the two races. Jonathan Pineda, David Suarez, and Christopher Gomez-Somarriba rounded out the scoring for the Panthers. Suarez competed in his final cross race as an FIU Panther. 

"The PR's for the men was great to see," said Felix. "A number of the guys dropped a significant amount of time. I'm also proud of the career David Suarez has had here, and looking forward to coaching him through one final track season." 

The women were running their first 6K of the season. The Panthers had a 1-5 spread of 1:48, averaging 23:38 for the meet. Maria Paula-Guerrero finished second for FIU with a time of 22:57, while Daira Deicmane, Lisa Adjouadi, Delilah Ayan, and Daniela Darias also competed for FIU. 

"Andrea came close to snagging a third-team all-conference honor," said Felix. "She executed a great race to lead the women." 

The women finished with 241 points, finishing ahead of UTSA and WKU, while the men finished with 268, placing ahead of Florida Atlantic. 

SOCIAL MEDIA 
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