SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Led by a third-place individual finish from Britain Reynolds, the Utah Valley University men's cross country team earned a runner-up finish in the Gold Division at Friday's Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational at UND's Burke Golf Course, while the UVU women finished 23rd in a stacked Blue Division.
 
Just a couple of years removed since winning the Gold Division, the UVU men placed second this time around with 78 total points to finish just 16 points back of WAC foe California Baptist who won the race with 62 points. By taking second in the 21-team Gold Division 5-mile men's race, the Wolverine men finished ahead of Cincinnati (123), IUPUI (130), Youngstown State (194), Ohio State (202), Toledo (211), Auburn (225), Eastern Kentucky (245), Loyola Marymount (274), Illinois State (334), Vanderbilt (341), Dayton (360), Kent State (380), Indiana State (387), UIC (415), Central Michigan (418), Clemson (419), Southern Illinois (424), Valparaiso (477) and Kennesaw State (568). 
 
The reigning NCAA qualifier Reynolds led the Wolverines in Friday's 5-mile Gold Division men's race by placing third overall with an impressive time of 24:27.1. A total of four Wolverines finished in the top-20 of the race, as Geofrey Kemboi finished 11th with a time of 24:56.5, followed by Habtamu Cheney in 13th (24:57.7) and Max Mahon in 17th (25:05.3). Kale Sharp also ran well on the day by placing 34th (25:26.7). Joshua Peters was next for the UVU men by placing 87th (26:27.7), followed by Hawk Call in 128th (27:43.6).
 
"Our men ran a lot better. They got out and managed to get right in the mix of things from the get-go," head UVU coach Scott Houle said. "We lost one of our runners to an injury around mile four, which hurt our chances of winning, as California Baptist was able to beat us. But we ran really, really well and managed to beat a couple of good schools. Our men did a nice job of getting off to a strong start, as well as running strong in the middle, and finishing strong. Overall, the meet went well and hopefully we can continue to make some improvements moving forward."
 
With 12 nationally ranked teams and 25 in all competing in the women's 5K Blue Division, the Wolverine women finished 23rd with 544 points to finish ahead of Northwestern and Penn. Freshman Caila Odekirk led the way for the UVU women for the first time on the season by placing 77th out of 192 competitors with an impressive 5K time of 17:18.5. Mazzie Melaney Preston was next with a time of 17:20.3 to take 82nd, followed by Maddie Bench Empey in 107th (17:31.0), Maggie Zwahlen in 143rd (17:50.5), and Taylor Viertel in 149th (17:53.9). Kate Richardson (18:25.9), Liz Zwahlen (18:38.6), and Hannah Branch (19:07.3) also placed 178th, 182nd and 190th, respectively. 
 
The second-ranked NC State Wolfpack won the women's Blue Division 5K with 38 points, followed by No. 3 New Mexico (94), No. 6 Alabama (147), No. 8 Washington (189) and No. 7 Minnesota (192). In-state foes Weber State and Southern Utah also took part in the Blue Division, and Weber State led the group by taking 13th with 336 points while SUU placed 19th with 456. 
 
"Our women had a rough race today. We just weren't able to get into the position that we needed to be in the early stages, and we had a tough time of swimming upstream from there," Houle added. "We eventually made up a bunch of ground in the back half of the race, but it just wasn't enough to have a real impact on our team finish. Our individual times were actually pretty good but as a team we struggled and need to improve on staying together as a group. This will give up something to work on moving forward and we're happy that we were able to gain some experience here competing against some of the best teams in the nation."
 
Competing in the women's 5K Open Division on the day, Zoe Hales was UVU's top finisher in the open races by clocking a 5K time of 18:06.8 to place 24th and was followed by Madison White in 63rd (18:51.2). In the men's 5-mile Open Division race, Cameron Jacobs paced the men's squad with a 73rd place finish with a 5-mile time of 26:57.2 followed by Joe Benson in 77th (27:01.0). 
 
The Wolverines will now return to Orem and will continue their busy stretch by heading to Cedar City next weekend to take part at the SUU Color Country Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 9. Following the meet, UVU will head to the Sunshine State for the FSU Invite/Pre-Nationals at Florida State University on Friday, Oct. 15.