GREENEVILLE, TN - The Lenoir-Rhyne men's and women's cross country teams competed in the SAC Championships on Saturday, with the women taking sixth and the men finishing in 11th.
"I thought the Ladies did a really good job. They finished 6th as seeded but I was proud of how they mixed it up with Lincoln Memorial and Carson Newman the whole way," said head coach
Bob Braman. "Caitlyn ran the best race of her career and the entire top six all ran well on an incredibly hilly course. Our men were already short-handed with only six runners, but we took a big hit when Holden's season-long injury flared up and Keanu rolled his ankle."
Racing on a 6k course with over 800 feet of elevation, junior
Maria Carmona led the way for the Bears with a time of 25:24.97, taking 22nd out of 103 runners. Running extremely strong was
Caitlyn Christie, who came through the tape at 25:47.91, good for 31st.
Regly Jemutai (26:06.22) and
Olivia Overholt (26:41.18) weren't far behind Christie, finishing in 36th and 42nd, respectively. The final scorer for the Bears was senior
Mathilde Etienne, who ran a time of 28:22.26.
The men were led in the 8k by
Cristian Cabascango, who took 75th with a time of 31:08.53. The pairing of
Chase Bryant and
Paul Williams were close behind with times of 31:29.58 and 31:36.48.
Sam Sosebee ran a time of 32:01.87 while
Keanu Dugan powered through and injury to round out the squad with a time of 39:27.38.
Wingate swept the team titles, winning with 25 points on the women's side and narrowly edging out Anderson on the men's side 36-37.
Lenoir-Rhyne's next race will take place on Saturday, November 8th, when they take part in the NCAA Southeast Regional hosted by Wingate.