The No. 6 Southern Utah men’s cross country team competed at the Nuttycombe Invitational on Friday, where they placed seventh overall as a team.
The men raced against 34 other teams, including top ranked No. 1 Northern Arizona, No. 2 Syracuse and No. 3 Stanford with a total of 235 runners in the Men’s 8K Championship Race.
Mike Tate was the first finisher for the Thunderbirds, coming in 18th overall for a time of 24:01.1. This was Tate’s first time competing at the event hosted by Wisconsin.
Kasey Knevelbaard was second in for SUU, finishing 45th overall in 24:18.6. Matt Wright was next in, placing 52nd in 24:21.6. Following Wright was Aidan Reed crossing the line with a time of 24:24.5 for a 59th place finish. Southern Utah’s final scorer was George Espino coming in 74th with a time of 24:32.3.
Christian Ricketts finished 193rd overall for a time of 25:28.9.
SUU head coach Eric Houle was pleased with the men’s performance on Friday.
“When you look at the times and compare them to last year, they greatly improved,” Houle said “This is the highest we’ve placed here, so all in all we ran really well.”
No. 1 Northern Arizona took first place at the Nuttycombe Invitational with No. 25 Portland, No. 3 Syracuse, No. 4 Stanford and No. 10 Furman taking the top five.
“Our guys are confident and feel good about their overall performance,” Houle said.
Last year the at the Nuttycombe Invitational the Thunderbirds finished 12th overall.
The Thunderbird men’s team will now turn their attention to the Big Sky Conference Championships on October 28 in Ogden.
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Story By
SUU Athletic Strategic Communications
