WINFIELD, Kan. -- Sophomore Josh Uzelac led the John Brown University men's cross country team for the sixth time this season, this time guiding the Golden Eagles to a seventh-place finish at the NAIA Mid-States Classic on Saturday morning.
The Golden Eagles captured seventh out of the field of 20 with a team time of 2 hours, 16 minutes, 29 seconds, finishing behind Top 25 programs Oklahoma City, Wayland Baptist (Texas) and Bacone (Okla.). In the field of 189, Uzelac finished seventh overall with a time of 26:07, while Missouri Valley's Ulysses Orozco captured first-place behind a time of 25:20.
Oklahoma City captured the team title in a time of 2:09:37, beating out second-place Missouri Valley by 61 seconds.
Sophomore Jacob Benjamin turned in a 26:29 time to finish in the 19th slot and senior Levi Nordmeyer grabbed 51st with a time of 27:36. Sophomore Justin Riffel crossed the finish line at 28:02 and freshman Elliott Pearson was close behind at 28:12, earning the duo 72nd and 79th, respectively.
Women
Sophomore Carly Coney returned to her usual spot as top runner and led the John Brown University women's cross country team to an 11th-place finish at the NAIA Mid-States Classic on Saturday morning.
The Golden Eagles captured 11th out of the field of 19 with a team time of 1 hour, 43 minutes, 46 seconds, two one-hundreths of a second faster than last week. Of the field of 166, Coney finished 53rd overall with a time of 20:14.
Oklahoma City's Aminat Olowora won the meet with an individual time of 16:50, helping the Stars to a first-place team finish.
Senior Abbie Melby turned in a 20:16 time to finish in the 55th and sophomore Reagan Roth grabbed 69th with a time of 20:55. Junior Kaitlyn Collier crossed the finish line at 20:56 and sophomore Haley Newcomb finished at 21:21, earning the duo 70th and 86th, respectively.
With a spread time of just 1:07 between its top-five finishers, JBU posted the second-best time spread. Only Hastings (Neb.) had a closer spread time of 51 seconds.
The Golden Eagles close the regular season on Nov. 5 at the Sooner Athletic Conference Championships, to be run at the Gordon Cooper Tech Center in Shawnee, Okla.
Sports on 10/26/2016