Winthrop’s Mills take first in 5K; men’s soccer ends in draw as women’s team falls

Mills captures Carolina Challenge; men finish 2nd, women 4th

Kevin Mills finished first at the Carolina Challenge to help the Winthrop men's cross country team to a second place finish while the women's team placed two in the Top 20 and finished fourth, hosted by South Carolina at Sandhill Rec in Columbia.

Mills captured the men's 5K with a time of 15:22, which marks the third first-place finish in his cross country career at Winthrop

The men's team placed four in the Top 11 as Hunter Jarvis was 9th, Theo Kahler was 10th and Blair Bijeau finished 11th (All three finished within 10 seconds of each other)

The Eagles finished with 51 points for second (first-place Clemson finished with 27)

South Carolina and Clemson took the top two spots on the women's side while Coastal Carolina finished 3rd with 97 points and the Eagles were 4th with 115Harper Henson and Victoria Burdette led the women's team as both finished in the Top 20

Henson led the Eagles with a time of 19:18 while Burdette was 20th with a time of 19:20

"Great opener for both sides this morning. Kevin was strong, easily running away from the field after the first mile. The team had great pack running after that, easily keeping Clemson in our sight. The women are starting to figure this out. They ran against three regionally ranked women's teams and competed well."

Winthrop will be off until Sept. 16 when it hosts the Winthrop Invitational at the Winthrop Farm.

Men’s soccer draws 1-1 at Mercer

Rasmus Arousell’s goal in the 83rd minute helped Winthrop earn a 1-1 draw at Mercer, Friday evening in the Big South/SoCON Challenge at Macon.

Goals: 29 feet – Mercer--- Thompson (Mezei); 83 feet – Winthrop – Arousell (Orfanidis, Rapp).

Mercer opened the game with an 8-2 advantage in shots, but the momentum shifted toward the Eagles who had a 5-1 shot advantage before Mercer found the net in the 29th minute. The Thompson goal came off the head of Ramario Thompson as he found the near post on a cross from Jake Mezei. Arousell tied the match 1-1 in the 83rd minute. Miles Rapp played a ball to George Orfinidas, who quickly found Arousell as he fired a shot from 25-30 yards out into the right corner of the goal. In the final minute of the first overtime, the Eagles had two corners and on the second Charlie Ramirez had a shot but fired it wide. Thompson tried to get his 2nd of the game in the second overtime as he won a header off a corner in the 102nd minute but it went wide. The Eagles had four shots in the final minute of the second overtime. Jogvan Jacobsen had a shot saved and then his shot off the rebound was blocked, which bounced out to Max Hasenstab and his shot was wide. Michael Smith fired a shot high with five seconds left to play

Winthrop will wrap-up the Big South/SoCON Challenge on Sept. 3 when it hosts Wofford College at 6 p.m.

Women's soccer falls 2-1 at Coastal Carolina

Coastal Carolina netted two goals in a five-minute span in the first half Friday evening to down the Winthrop women’s soccer 2-1 at CCU Soccer Stadium.

With the loss, Winthrop falls to 1-2-1 while Coastal Carolina improved to 4-1.

Coastal went up 1-0 in the 21st minute on a goal from Daniella Famili. Famili put the Chanticleers up 2-0 just over four minutes later. Winthrop was able to pull one goal back in the 38th minute as Allie Thomas put one in the back of the net on a feed from Katie Colwick.

The Eagles finished with six shots, and five of them were on frame. Gabi Hull finished with two shots. Goalie Kelly Horan notched two saves on the evening.

The Eagles travel Sept. 7 to SC State and return to Eagle Field against USC Upstate on Sept. 10.

This story was originally published September 2, 2017 at 3:25 PM with the headline "Winthrop’s Mills take first in 5K; men’s soccer ends in draw as women’s team falls."