At the beautiful Chattahoochee Hills in Fairburn, Georgia, the men's cross country team raced well to earn a fifth place finish at the Asics Invitational.
"This was a great race for us during this time of the season," said Head Coach Ken Roach. "We can go into October with confidence and get ready for our next meet. I could not have been more happy with the results."
It was a tight race as Bruins senior Sol Shafer raced towards the finish line. The fight for top-five was close but two other runners finished right ahead him. Shafer came in first for the Bruins in seventh place overall with a new personal best of 26:20.74. Less than a minute later at 27:14.45, Marc Johnson earned a PR to finish in the top-25. Freshman Joel Betres-Mena competed in his first collegiate 8k this morning and finished 27th with a time of 27:20.24. Coming in fourth for the Bruins was Joseph Grassmid whose time of 27:44.46 earned him a top-40 spot. Newcomer Levi Gerbitz rounded out the scoring for the men's cross country team with a time of 28:24.15 in his first 8k event.Â
Also competing today was Trenton Goldsmith who finished with an 11 second PR at 28:33.46. In his first 8k as a Bruin, Daniel Kyle ran to a time of 29:43.08 followed by Andrew Sarver (30:50.32), Justin VanDenBerghe (31:01.30), and Seth Cordes (31:10.65).
In a field of over 130 runners and 13 teams, the Bruins finished with 127 points to come in fifth overall. Full results from the meet can be found
here.
Up next, the Bruins will travel to Salem, Virginia to race at the Roanoke Invitational on October 13.
