The men's and women's cross-country teams both battled hard on Friday afternoon at the Notre Dame Invitational, but the men found more success at the meet.
The men's team placed fifth out of 16 in the team standings with 157 points, while the women's team finished in 12th out of 19 teams.
Junior Dylan Conway was the top finisher for the Bulls in the men's eight-kilometer race. He placed 21st out of 137 participants, posting a time of 25:40. Three other members of the men's team placed in the top 35 of the eight-kilometer race, including graduate Mike Gillis, senior Ryan Bloom and junior John Inzina. All three completed the race within 25:55.
"I think we did decently, not outstanding," said Bulls head coach Vicki Mitchell. "We had a tight showing, and this is the midpoint of our season. It was the second race for many of our guys. We were able to see where we're at, and where we need to be."
The meet was split into gold and blue divisions, based on the strengths of competing teams. The Bulls competed in the gold division of the meet, which pitted them against Mid-American Conference rival Eastern Michigan.
Eastern Michigan dominated at the invitational, finishing at the top of the men's meet. The second closest team came in 47 points behind the Eagles.
"Seeing where Eastern Michigan ended up, and the gap between ourselves and them, we want to close that up before the conference showing in the next four weeks." Mitchell said.
On the women's side, sophomore Katie Sanders finished 20th in the five-kilometer race out of 161 racers, turning in a time of 18:29. Sophomore Sam Beim finished 52nd in the race and graduate Christine Sprehe came in right behind her with a 53rd place finish.
Mitchell expects the team to be better in their next week after having her team train harder in the coming weeks.
"We're going to continue development and go in the right direction, and work on getting better." Mitchell said. "There's going to be a focus on training in the next few weeks before Penn State. There, we'll see some other MAC conference schools, and some nationally ranked teams. We can see how we are up against those teams."
The Penn State invitational starts at 10 a.m. on Oct. 16.
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