TALLAHASSEE, Fla.- The Florida Gulf Coast Eagles ran to their second straight third place finish on Friday at the FSU Pre-Regional in Tallahassee with Siyabonga Mokgothu leading four FGCU runners in the top 20 in his first race of the season.

The Eagles turned in a third place performance behind only Florida State and Florida Southern, moving up the table slowly as the race went along. After the first 2000m the Eagles sat seventh, but a strong sector through the middle saw them move up to fifth by the 3000m mark and then third by the halfway point of the race at 4000m where they remained the rest of the way.

"We executed the race plan well to deliver a strong performance in our first 8k of the season" FGCU head coach Argeo Cruz said. "We're proud of them for sticking to the plan and competing aggressively as teammates. We look forward to continuing to build on this experience." 

Siyabonga Mokgothu led the Eagle runners, finishing in 12^th place overall with a time of 24:57.8. He paced himself to start, but shot through the field in the middle of the race, moving up 25 spots from the 2000m mark to the 4000m mark to concrete himself inside the top 15.

Victor Kemboi followed suit, sitting 52^nd after the first 1000m before bolting through the field to move all the way up to third at the 5000m mark before finishing off in 13^th just behind Mokgothu with a 24:59.3.

Evan Casterline turned in a solid run, getting off to a good start and maintaining page, spending the last half of the race inside the top 20, picking off runners one at a time before finishing 15^th with a 25:00.8.

Innocent Ntwali, who led the Eagles in their first race of the year in Jacksonville was 17^th, turning in a time of 25:04.8 after a 3:07.1 final 1000m.

Jacob Leon was the final point scorer for FGCU, finishing 55^th, gaining positions in each sector after starting the race 103^rd after the first 1000m.

Joel Jean and Andrew Wilcox didn't factor into the scoring for the Eagles, but both clocked times in the top 75.

Florida State dominated the field in their home race with all five point scorers finishing in the top 10. Florida Southern was a distant second with 97 points, just ahead of the Eagles in third with 108. Embry-Riddle and Tampa followed FGCU with 121 and 127 points respectively with Stetson finishing sixth with 170 points.

Next up for the Eagles is the Nike Cross Country Town Twilight in Terre Haute, Ind. on October 2^nd before returning to the Sunshine State for the Ed Holloway Classic in the middle of the month.

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