Men's Cross Country Compete Saints Invitational

Men's Cross Country Compete Saints Invitational
SAN ANTONIO, Texas - The Southwestern men's cross country team traveled to San Antonio and placed 8th in the 2019 Saints Invitational.

This was the men's first 8k for the season and coach Steven Carry commented that "the guys had a solid race this morning. Our goal was to be better than we were in our season opener. I think we did that."

Noah Dennis placed 12th out of 91 runners with a time of 27:51 and an average pace of 5:36 a mile. CP Shaulis was the second-fastest Pirate runner who finished 26th with a time of 28:50 and an average pace of 5:48 a mile.

"I'm really impressed with the way Noah is running right now, especially as a freshman. He had a great race this morning and exceeded the goal we had coming into this meet," Carry said. "I also like where C.P. is at fitness-wise. He's running better now than he ended the season last year."
 
The Pirates ran against a diverse group of competitors that were Division II, Division III and community college levels. 
 
"We saw much more competition today and responded well. I know the guys felt a little tired going into this race due to some progressions in training the past 2 weeks, but everyone stepped up and put their best effort forward," the coach said. Although Southwestern placed 8th out of 11 teams, the Pirates were the third-fastest Division III team including teams such as Trinity University, McMurry University, Schreiner University and Sul Ross State University.

Coach Carry noted that the men's team had positives from this meet to help them get ready for the next meet. 
 
"Overall, the guys are in a good place, but we must keep up this trend of improvement every meet. We'll have another big test in a couple of weeks."

The next meet will take place in Fayetteville, Arkansas, at the Chile Pepper Cross Country Festival on Oct. 5 at 8 a.m.