HURRICANE, Utah – The Utah Valley University women's cross country team opened the 2020-21 season with a third-place finish while the men followed with a fourth-place showing at the Dixie State Invitational at The Golf Course at Sand Hollow Resort in Hurricane, Utah on Saturday. 
 
Maddie Bench Empey, Maggie Zwahlen and Mazzie Melaney Preston all posted top-10 finishes for the women's squad in a stacked seven-team field, while Britain Reynolds paced the men's team by placing 15th in UVU's first cross country meet since November of 2019. 
 
"What a great race for our women's team. This honestly might be the best our women's team has performed since I've been here as the coach (17 seasons)," head UVU coach Scott Houle said. "Maddie Empey led the way and raced really solid from start to finish. She got herself in the top group and stayed there along with Maggie Zwahlen and Mazzie Melaney Preston. The three of them were great all race long, as well as Hannah Branch and Skye Jeppson. So, our women's team is starting to look really strong and I'm very proud of how they raced.
 
"Our men's team is a little banged up currently, so I was pleased with the fourth-place finish. Britain Reynolds had a really great race to lead the way followed by a number of strong performances from our freshmen. So, we're going to continue to improve this year and when we get healthy, we should be a pretty solid team." 
 
The trio of Bench Empey, Zwahlen and Melaney Preston led the Wolverine women by placing fifth, seventh and ninth respectively. Bench Empey led the 6K women's race for UVU with a time of 20:48.3, while Zwahlen clocked 21:02.5 and Melaney Preston followed with a time of 21:13.4. Hannah Branch was UVU's fourth finisher by placing 16th overall (21:39.8) while Skye Jeppson rounded out Utah Valley's scoring with a 29th place finish (22:13.1). 
 
As a team, the UVU women finished third with 63 points. In-state foe Utah State won the race with 42 points, while the reigning WAC women's champion California Baptist Lancers took second with 55. By taking third, the Wolverines finished ahead of fellow in-state foes Weber State (87), Southern Utah (121), Dixie State (202), as well as Idaho State (172). 
 
On the men's side, Reynolds was UVU's top finisher by crossing the 8K finish line with a time of 24:25.6 to take 15th overall. Freshmen Jackson Pratt and Austin Hone were next by taking 23rd (24:44.6) and 25th (24:48.4), respectively, while Geofrey Kemboi followed with a 26th place finish (24:58.6). Freshman Joshua Peters rounded out UVU's scorers by taking 30th with a time of 25:17.5. 
 
As a team, the Wolverine men placed fourth with 107 points. Utah State also won the men's race with 31 points, followed by Southern Utah (36) and WAC foe California Baptist (58). By taking fourth, UVU finished ahead of both Idaho State (165) and host Dixie State (170). 
 
With the cross country season moved to the spring this year due to COVID, the Wolverines will next have an indoor track & field meet at Weber State next weekend (Jan. 29-30), before heading to either UNLV or Florida State the first week of February for their next cross country meet.