The Bob Jones University men's cross country finished in seventh place out of 19 teams Friday night at the Roanoke Invitational at Green Hill Park in Salem, Virginia.
"Coming off of a great finish last race, I felt like we did not have much to lose today," said Head Coach Ken Roach. "This was a great opportunity to dig a little deeper and see what would happen. I felt the team did a wonderful job putting their best on the line today, and I am super proud of them."
As the race got underway the Bruins began making their way through the pack. Sol Shafer moved from 21st after the first 1k marker to finish 12th overall with a new personal best of 26:06.2 and take over third overall in program history.
Coming around to the finish line just over a minute later at 27:17 was Joel Betres-Mena who shaved four seconds off his first 8k's time for a new PR. Right behind was Joseph Grassmid who stopped the clock at 27:22.8 to earn a 22 second new personal record.
Finishing fourth for the Bruins was Marc Johnson with a solid performance of 27:32.6. Trenton Goldsmith rounded out the scoring for the men's team at 29:05.5.
Daniel Kyle with a new PR of 29:34.9, Levi Gerbitz, Justin VanDen Berge, Seth Cordes, and Andrew Sarver also competed in the 8k race.
With the final points and placements finalized, Bob Jones University and Washington and Lee University finished even at 203 points apiece, but a tiebreaker comparing each individual finisher's place saw Washington and Lee edge out the Bruins 4-1 (W-W-W-L-W).
The Bruins came in seventh place with an average pace of 27:29 and finished with a team time of 2:17:24, just 20 seconds slower than their last race at the Asics Invitational on September 30.
Click
here for the full results from Friday's Roanoke Invitational.
Up next, the Bruins will be back on their home course as they host the Bruins Invite on October 28 on the fields of BJU's campus.
