OREM, Utah — The 2024 cross country season got underway Friday morning with Utah Valley University's men and women both winning team titles and the men winning an individual title at the UVU Invitational at Scera Park.
Mo Guled won the men's race with Wolverine runners taking five of the top six spots. Guled ran the 3-mile course in 14:13.6, building a sizeable lead and crossing the finish line just under four seconds before teammate
Austin Hone (14:17.4).
Abdulsalam Farah, who ran unattached, finished third (14:29.1) with
Adam Bunker (14:30.9) and
Gilbert Olivas (14:31.6) coming in fifth and sixth, respectively. UVU's men finished with 23 points with Southern Utah coming in second.
The Utah Valley women were led by
Oakley Olson and
Anna Martin, who finished second and third and crossed the finish line almost simultaneously. Olson ran it at 16:24.8 while Martin crossed the line at 16:38.5.
Caila Odekirk was fourth, running the three miles in 16:46.8 with the Wolverines scoring 26 team points with Weber State finishing second and Utah in third.
The Utes had the top finisher on the women's side, with Annastasia Peters taking first with a time of 16:25.8 for a Utah team that sent just a limited number of runners and finished third as a team.
Friday's races were the first of two meets hosted by UVU this season. The Wolverines will also host the WAC Cross Country Championships on Nov. 1 at Lakeside Park. Up next for Utah Valley will be the BYU Autumn Classic, on Sept. 13 at Lakeside Park.