The No.13 SUU men’s cross country team came away with a dominating first place finish at the Joe Piane Invitational at Notre Dame on September 29, finishing before a number of ranked teams including No. 4 Colorado and No. 11 Washington State.
The T-Birds had an impressive first place finish with a low score of 72 points.
The Thunderbirds beat the second place finishers No. 4 Colorado by 29 points. Rounding out the top five teams were Air Force, Michigan and Eastern Kentucky
SUU head coach Eric Houle said the men were ready and they knew what they needed to.
“To have a breakthrough like this, and not only win the meet but win it by 29 points, shows that we can run with the best in the country,” he said.
Mike Tate was the top finisher for Southern Utah coming in fifth overall with a time of 23:51.8, finishing right behind Tate was Kasey Knevelbaard in sixth with a time of 23:58.5.
Next in for SUU was Josh Collins coming in 17th with a time of 24:07.8, George Espino followed coming in 21st with a time of 24:12.2 and Matthew Wright coming in 23rd overall with a time of 24:12.4.
Aiden Reed placed 48th bringing in a time of 24:35.5 with Christian Ricketts coming in 83rd finishing in 24:59.6.
Houle was impressed with how the men ran at this meet.
“From our number one to our number seven there was maturity and youth, and it looks like there are good things in store for us,” Houle said. “This was a good victory for us.”
The Thunderbirds will be hosting their only home meet, the Color Country Invitational on Saturday October 7th here in Cedar City. The races will take place at the Cedar Ridge Golf Course and are set to begin at 8 a.m. MT. Competing teams will include Dixie State, Idaho State and Utah Valley.
This meet will occur during Southern Utah’s Homecoming weekend.
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Story By
SUU Athletic Strategic Communications
