The Govs and Lady Govs cross country teams recorded strong times Saturday, Sept. 24th, as they hosted the Austin Peay Cross Country Invitational at Hillsdale Baptist Church.
The Govs finished third out of 10 teams while the Lady Govs earned a fifth place finish out of nine teams.
The University of Memphis finished first in both men’s and women’s races.
The Govs featured two runners finishing in the top 20 (Tyler Smith, 15th, 22:34 and Hezron Kiptoo, 16th, 22:35), followed by a 25th place finish from Daniel Hamm (23:13). Nick Piskor found a 3oth place finish (23:23), Nash Young got 32nd (23:27) and Wesley Gray finished in 40th place (23:44).
Martin Rejman, in his season debut, finished 52nd (24:18) and Andrew Abel (57th, 24:38) raced as well.
In the men’s race a number of racers took the wrong turn and received penalties, including APSU sophomore Wesley Gray.
“With Gray taking a wrong turn that hurt us, but third of 10 teams isn’t too bad,” Head Coach Doug Molnar said. “We will keep improving. It was great to get Martin in the race, so hopefully he continues to get healthy and add to our depth.”
Senior Unjala Lester had the highest Lady Govs finish at 20th place (20:08), followed by junior Becca Wheeler (23rd, 20:21) and junior Sarah-Emily Woodward (26th, 20:32).
Sarah Carpenter finished 32nd (20:50), freshman Sarah Eskildson placed 60th (23:01) and senior Hanna Wise finished 69th in her debut (25:06).
“The women also ran better today,” Molnar said. “It’s all about getting better meet-to-meet at this time of year and we are definitely doing that. It was great to see Unjala rounding into shape.”
APSU will begin the final stretch of their competitive season as they travel to Oxford, Alabama on Saturday, Oct. 1, for the Jacksonville State University Invitational.
