OREM, Utah --  A pair of second-place finishes by sophomores Anthony Ocegueda and Hannah Branch helped guide a strong showing of top-10 Wolverine finishes in Utah Valley men's and women's cross country's victories at Saturday's UVU Invitational.

Branch led things off in the 5K races with her top finish among UVU's four women inside the top 10 to begin the morning, logging a time of 18:03.03. Just minutes later, Ocegueda followed suit as the second runner to cross the finish line among collegiate competitors to lead the Wolverines' contingent of four top-5 finishers in that race.

"It was a really good race overall," said Ocegueda. "Jason Lynch is a veteran putting in 100-mile weeks and training for the Olympic trials, so Adrian [Jones] and I told ourselves we wanted to run our own type of race. After going out pretty fast, I decided to be kind of conservative the first two laps and keep my pace with the top two or three guys. Going into that last one I started to kick into a higher gear and I fell on the final downhill part but Geofrey [Kemboi] in third place caught me, so it looks like we're primed for a great season."
 
Former UVU cross country and track and field runner Jason Lynch made an appearance as an unattached runner in the men's 5K. Lynch led the entire pack throughout and earned the overall race victory with a time of 14:54.4.
 
Also joining Branch in the top-5 pack of runners for UVU, freshman Maggie Zwahlen notched a fourth-place finish and time of 18:25.0 in her Wolverine and collegiate debut. Adding to the group of Wolverines among the top-10 women finishers, freshmen Meg Nielsen (18:46.0) and Mazzie Melaney (18:50.7) placed sixth and seventh in their debuts with their own pair of sub-19 minute marks on the day.
 
Nearly reaching the platform of the first 10 finishers, UVU freshman Taylor Viertel's mark of 19:12.1 gave her an 11th-place finish and round out the UVU scoring as the squad's fifth finisher. Viertel's final team points formed part of a Wolverine group of eight runners finishing inside the top 15 at the meet.
 
"It's really comforting knowing that we had five girls in the top 10, especially with a majority of them being freshmen. Our runners 2-5 were all freshmen, so it's going to be exciting to have them with me for the next three years to help move this program higher up in the [regional] rankings," said Branch.
 
Crossing the finish line moments after Viertel, Abby Linford made her season debut in 12th place as part of eight UVU's top-15 overall finishers on the women's side. Senior Aisha Graham-Perez returned from her year hiatus with the start of motherhood by tallying a 13th-place finish on a time of 19:20.2 to kick off her fifth and final campaign.
 
In the men's collegiate results, sophomore Geofrey Kemboi enjoyed a third-place finish that helped push the Wolverines to four top-5 finishers with his time of 15:30.4. Posting another pair of strong UVU collegiate debuts, freshmen Hawk Call (15:31.2) and Britain Reynolds (15:31.5) competed until the finish line to finish within three-tenths of a second of each other and place fourth and fifth, respectively.
 
"We've lost some really good runners the last couple of years, but I'm excited to see how these young kids came in. It's probably the youngest team I've ever had. We're going to be led by just a couple of seniors and juniors, but really some sophomores on both sides. It's a bit nerve-wracking to have to rely on youth, but I think they're mature enough and ready to take on that challenge," Houle said.
 
Junior Adrian Jones completed the UVU men's squad scoring in 12th place, clocking a home meet career-best of 15:48.9 in his strong start to the 2018 campaign. His home personal-best time for the Wolverines came after hovering among the top pack of runners throughout the race.
 
The Wolverines' double-sided victory came upon a 30-point outing from the UVU women's squad and a 24-point effort on the men's side in their lone home meet. Southern Utah took second across the men's and women's races with the two Thunderbird individual winners in the collegiate results, preceding the Idaho State third-place finishes for their men (63 points) and women (60 points).

Also of note on the afternoon, last season's All-Mountain region selection and former UVU cross country runner Tyson Lambert was presented with his 2017-18 WAC Stan Bates Award trophy in a special ceremony in between the women's and men's races.
 
UVU will now take the next two weeks to prepare for its next meet when they head to the Golden State for the UC Riverside Invitational on Saturday, September 15.