{"id":188854,"date":"2026-03-12T16:04:25","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T16:04:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/188854\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T16:04:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T16:04:25","slug":"fgcu-set-for-tampa-distance-classic-on-friday-evening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/188854\/","title":{"rendered":"FGCU set for Tampa Distance Classic on Friday evening"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n                    &#13;<br \/>\n                        Story Links&#13;<br \/>\n                        &#13;<br \/>\n    &#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n<p>                     FORT MYERS, Fla. \u2013 The last time <a href=\"https:\/\/fgcuathletics.com\/sports\/womens-cross-country\/roster\/alise-petrova\/10237\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"10237\" target=\"_blank\">Alise Petrova<\/a> ran the 5K in Tampa, she won the race. On Friday evening, the FGCU sophomore will look for a repeat performance as the Eagles cross country team will race at the Tampa Distance Classic beginning at 5 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>TAMPA DISTANCE CLASSIC<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/sunshinestateconference.tv\/tampa\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Live Video<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/results.tfmeetpro.com\/Elite_Timing_and_Event_M\/Spartans_Classic_2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Live Results<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Petrova clocked 17:26.73 at the Tampa Track Classic on Feb. 21. Now, three weeks later, she looks to claim gold again and improve upon her time when the women&#8217;s 5K begins at 7:30 p.m. She won&#8217;t be the only one looking to leave the field in the dust, either.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/fgcuathletics.com\/sports\/mens-cross-country\/roster\/siyabonga-mokgothu\/10144\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"10144\" target=\"_blank\">Siyabonga Mokgothu<\/a> set a new school record in the 3K at the February meet in Tampa and now turns his attention to the 5K. The sophomore runner has a personal best time of 14:51.66, which he ran at the same meet last year. He&#8217;ll need to shave 20 seconds off that time, which currently ranks seventh in program history, to dethrone former Eagles runner and current head coach <a href=\"https:\/\/fgcuathletics.com\/sports\/mens-cross-country\/roster\/coaches\/argeo-cruz\/5396\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"5396\" target=\"_blank\">Argeo Cruz<\/a> for the best mark in school history. Cruz clocked 14:31.89 in the 5K at the Florida Relays when he was a senior in 2014.<\/p>\n<p>Mokgothu will be joined by nearly a dozen other Eagles in the 5K race while two FGCU runners \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/fgcuathletics.com\/sports\/mens-cross-country\/roster\/innocent-ntwali\/10247\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"10247\" target=\"_blank\">Innocent Ntwali<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/fgcuathletics.com\/sports\/mens-cross-country\/roster\/elmer-mijangos\/10347\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"10347\" target=\"_blank\">Elmer Mijangos<\/a> \u2013 will compete in the 1,500m at 5:10 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nFor more information on the Eagles, follow FGCU Athletics on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/fgcuathletics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Instagram<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/FGCUEagles\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">X (Twitter)<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/FGCUAthletics\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Facebook<\/a>, and visit <a href=\"https:\/\/fgcuathletics.com\/index.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">FGCUathletics.com<\/a>.<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>                <script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; Story Links&#13; &#13; &#13; &#13; FORT MYERS, Fla. \u2013 The last time Alise Petrova ran the 5K&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188855,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-188854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}