SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Behind top-15 finishes from Kevin Lynch, Geofrey Kemboi, Britain Reynolds and Hawk Call, the Utah Valley University men's cross country team went on to win the Gold Division at the 64th annual Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational on Friday at Burke Golf Course in South Bend, Indiana.
 
The UVU men officially tied with Miami (Ohio) with 86 points apiece, but the Wolverines held the tiebreaker over the ninth-ranked Great Lakes Region RedHawks to seal the victory. By winning the Gold Division race, the Utah Valley men finished ahead of Kansas State, LSU, Auburn, Clemson, UMass, Mountain Region foe UTEP, and 12 other schools. 
 
"The men's team ran a really solid race. We had four runners in the top-eight until the last mile or so and finished with four in the top-15," head coach Scott Houle said. "Kevin was again our top finisher and we also had strong outings today from Geofrey, Britain, Hawk, and Daniel. Overall it was a great performance by our men's team and the team is definitely headed in the right direction." 
 
The senior Lynch, who is the reigning WAC Men's Athlete of the Year senior, led the way for the Wolverine men by placing fourth overall with a blazing time of 24:18.64 in the 5-mile race. The junior Kemboi was next by finishing sixth (24:30.74), followed by sophomores Reynolds (24:34.96) and Call (24:41.60) in 11th and 14th place, respectively. Freshman Daniel Bausch rounded out UVU's scoring competitors by placing 51st with a time of 25:22.27, while junior Lamek Keditukei took 72nd (25:38.73) and freshman Max Bailey finished in 88th (25:52.98). 
 
A year removed from winning the Gold Division race, the UVU women bumped up to the Blue Division this year and finished with a solid 23rd-place finish against tough competition that featured 11 ranked teams with a total of 604 points. Sophomore Maggie Zwahlen and Mazzie Melaney led the Wolverine women by placing 98th and 105th with respective times of 17:35.96 and 17:38.05 on the 5K course. Senior Savannah Neuberger was next by placing 120th (17:44.54), while freshman Kate Richardson took 131st (17:54.94), and sophomores Taylor Viertel (18:00.11), Maddie Bench Empey (18:00.15) and Skye Jeppson (18:06.01) took 141st, 142nd and 151st. Freshman Trinity Schimbeck (18:15.44) rounded out UVU's competitors in the race by placing 162nd. 
 
"Even though it doesn't look like our women's team had the best showing (by placing 23rd), they truly had a great performance today. All of our returners posted faster times than they did on this same course a season ago and our freshmen also ran faster as a whole this season too," Houle added. "The women's team put themselves in a good position, but had a hard time moving up since they were funneled in the back to start the race. They did a nice job once the course opened up, however, and closed the race out well."
 
In-state foe Utah claimed an upset victory in the Blue Division women's race with 110 points to finish ahead of No. 1 Colorado (116), No. 17 Florida State (129), No. 8 NC State (139), No. 6 Washington (144), No. 9 Wisconsin (152), No. 3 New Mexico (176), No. 12 Notre Dame (239), No. 29 Minnesota (265), No. 14 Ole Miss (288), No. 25 Boston College (301), No. 16 Iowa State (449), and 12 other schools. UVU bested Bradley (636) by taking 23rd. 
 
Two other Wolverine men and two more women took part in the Open Division races on the day and freshman Jorge Vazquez led the men's team by taking 29th with a time of 25:24.73, while sophomore Emily Jones led the women by taking 37th (18:18.46).
 
The UVU cross country team will now return to the state of Utah and will next head to the SUU Color Country Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 12 in Cedar City.