NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The Saint Louis University cross country teams turned in strong performances Friday at the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational, with the Billiken men placing fourth in the Men's Gold 8K and the SLU women finishing 12th in the Women's Blue 5K at Burke Golf Course.
"This was a really good day for our program," SLU head coach Jon Bell said. "First, for our women, we had the opportunity to race nationally ranked teams in NC State and Notre Dame. I believe we learned a lot from this level of racing. All the women ran well, even though we made some tactical mistakes early in the race. Obviously we don't like making mistakes, but if we're going to make them, doing it earlier in the season is better than later, so I'm excited to see how we respond in two weeks when we race another top notch field at the NCAA Pre-National meet.
"For the men, this was an excellent performance. We beat some teams that we had lost to earlier this year. Our team 8K average time was the fastest we've ever run. That was a solid team effort today."
The Billiken men totaled 176 points to finish fourth in a 21-team field, trailing only Tiffin (120), Western Ontario (152) and Marquette (164). SLU's top five runners finished within 48 seconds of each other.
Junior Manny Vela led the Billikens, placing ninth overall in 24:21.9. Freshman Jameson Tenopir was 30th in 24:42.3, followed closely by sophomore Ronnie Brown in 32nd at 24:43.7. Senior Noah McMullen placed 41st in 24:52.3, while senior Matthew Harden rounded out the scoring five in 64th at 25:09.4.
The Billiken women finished 12th with 319 points in the 20-team Women's Blue 5K.
Senior Oliwia Wawrzyniak paced the Billikens with a 14th-place finish in 16:17.44, placing her among the top 15 runners in the competitive field. Freshman Sydney Gertsen followed in 59th at 17:15.07, while senior Sophia Pelligreen was 75th in 17:27.88. Junior Clara Gillen finished 89th in 17:38.95, and freshman Maggie Zimmerman completed the scoring five in 114th at 17:57.00.
The Bills are back in action Friday, Oct. 16, at the Pre-National Invitational at Indiana State in Terre Haute, Ind.
