TAMPA -- With his parents surprising him and cheering him on, Bethune-Cookman University's Carlin Berryhill delivered a first place individual finish Saturday morning at the USF Invitational.

The 2018 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference champion clocked a 5K time of 16:04.91, outdistancing unattached runner Jonathan Werble by 13 seconds as his parents Charles and Jeanie watched.

"It's a blessing to have both parents supporting you on the next level," Berryhill said. "They always make sacrifices to come to almost every meet that my brother and I compete in."

This was BCU's final regular season meet before the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference championship October 26.

"I'm definitely looking forward to the next two weeks of training before conference with my teammates," Berryhill said. "There's still certain aspects of the race we can improve on. Looking forward to it"

DaMauri Little finished 16th (17:15.57); DeAndre Petty 25th (17:55.31), Matthew Bergschneider 27th (18:05.52), Olusegun Abudu 34th (20:24.47) and Mario Watson 39th (24:11.48) as BCU finished third in the men's competition.

"Carlin is the leader of the team and continues to show it week after week," said BCU Head Coach Donald Cooper. "Little and the rest of the guys the rest of the guys push harder because of how hard Carlin works."

The women finished sixth, led by Brittany Gill, who came in 17th with a 5K time of 21:14.01. Vel'Lance Wells was 29th (22:30.71); Bernita Brown  37th (23:33.84); Kaliece Pickney 42nd (24:03.63) and Thea Shaw 50th (27:45.59).

"The ladies continue to run together, led again this week by  Brittany, Cooper said. "Her young teammates have a great future ahead of them."