GEORGETOWN, Texas – The Southwestern University men's cross country team ran a strong race at the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships and finished in third place as a team on Saturday morning. Two Pirate runners, Xander Bailey (14th) and Brian Armijo (9th), earned SCAC All-Conference honors.
Southwestern's top five finishers posted an average time of 27:18 over the 8-kilometer trail. The average time was only 52 seconds overall or 10.4 second per runner out of second place, which was filled by Trinity University.
The Pirates scored a total of 91 points while Trinity tallied 35 but the Tigers did not post the lowest score, which was held by championship-winning Colorado College with 31 points.
Southwestern's Brian Armijo was the top harrier for the Pirates after finishing in ninth place on his home course in a time of 26:29.5.
The Pirates' X-men duo of Xander Bailey and William Wines both finished with 30 seconds of Armijo with Bailey clocking in a time of 26:48.1 for a 14th-place finish and Wines earning 19th place in a time of 26:59.5.
Noah Dennis (23rd – 27:11.1) and Cade Rosenquist (54th – 29:03.7) rounded out the top five for the Pirates while Andrew Cutting (68th – 31:08.3), Gary Sunderland (69th – 31:55.6), Gannon Hall (74th – 32:28.9) and Vincent Kim (75th – 32:29.7) rounded out the list of harriers that raced for Southwestern.
Colorado College's James Settles took home the medalist honors with a blazing time of 25:23.6, which was just over 30 seconds faster than the second place finisher Will Salony (25:23.7) from Trinity.
The 2022 SCAC Conference Championships marks the highest finish for the men since 2012.