Firebirds Compete at DSU 5K Farm Run Invitational

SMYRNA, DE - Returning to action after a one-week layoff, the Firebirds women's cross country team headed back to the Delaware State Cross Country course to compete at the DSU 5K Farm Run Invitational.

UDC was once again led by junior Simone Grant, (Health Education – Bronx, NY/Pelham Prep Academy) who continued her great progression through the cross country season by running a season-best, 22:12 to finish 27^th overall amongst 74 competitors.

The second finisher for the Firebirds was sophomore Kay-Tiarra Johnson (Psychology – Hempstead, NY/Hempstead HS) who also ran a season-best time of 22:31 for 29^th overall. Senior Kimoy Mais (Mass Media – St. Andrew, Jamaica/St. Andrew HS) was the third scorer for the Firebirds and ran 23:28 to place 35^th. Rounding out the scorers for the Firebirds were juniors Christina Baker (Psychology – Kingston, Jamaica/Collegiate Institute for Math & Science) and Brittany Okon (Health Education – Bronx, NY/Pelham Prep Academy) who ran 25:09 and 25:12 to place 44^th and 45^th, respectively.

Head coach Alton McKenzie was extremely pleased with the efforts of Simone Grant and KayTiarra Johnson, who improved 45 seconds and 25 seconds, respectively, from their previous season-bests.

"Our goal is to ensure that the rest of our group matches [Grant and Johnson's] effort so we can continue improving overall as a team. Cross Country is about a full team effort, so we're looking for the group to continuing improving as we head into the championship portion of the season," McKenzie said.

The Firebirds finished 6^th amongst seven teams competing at the event and they will head back to DSU in two weeks to wrap up their regular season and prepare for the East Coast Conference Championships in early November.