ST. LOUIS, Mo. -- Junior Josh Uzelac is picking the best time of year to post his best results as he led the John Brown University men's cross country team to a second-place finish on Saturday morning at the St. Louis College of Pharmacy Fall Classic at the Forest Park Central Fields.
Uzelac posted his season-best mark of 26 minutes, 24.9 seconds and finished in second place, just 20 seconds behind the meet's medalist, Shane Burns of Evangel (Mo.). It was Uzelac's second-straight top-five finish in as many weeks.
"Josh (Uzelac) is back racing like we expect him to," head coach Scott Schochler said. "Ben (Martin) had another solid race near the front of the field. Michael (Games) and Elliott (Pearson) both had their best races of the year and competed well. The whole team looks ready to have a strong performance at the conference championships."
Freshman Ben Martin posted his second-straight top-10 finish, landing ninth place overall with a season-best time of 26:53.4. Junior Michael Games scored for the third time this season, also posting a season-best mark of 27:18.0 to capture 14th place overall in the field of 97 runners.
Also scoring for John Brown were sophomore Elliott Pearson and freshman Matthew Bloom. Pearson's season-best time of 27:30.4 was good enough for 19th place while Bloom's season-best time of 27:57.6 landed him 36th overall.
The Golden Eagles were without the services of junior Jacob Benjamin, who was competing in the U.S. Army Ranger Challenge.
Women
For the fourth time in four races, freshman Sarah Larson paced the John Brown University women's cross country team, and the Golden Eagles managed a sixth-place finish on Saturday morning in the women's race.
Larson finished with a 5,000-meter time of 20:40.1 and finished 19th place to lead the John Brown effort. Junior Reagan Roth shaved off a minute from her time in Little Rock last week and posted a 20:56.9, landing 25th place overall. Freshman Kylie Tucker continued to improve and set a season PR by grabbing 27th place in a time of 21:05.7.
"Sarah (Larson) continues to have a very solid freshman year," head coach Scott Schochler said. "Reagan (Roth) ran strong today to really help the team and Kylie (Tucker) is racing better each week, as are each of the women. Another solid day."
To complete the JBU scoring, junior Carly Coney nabbed 35th place with a time of 21:28.7 while freshman Hannah Fiser's time of 21:41.7 placed her at 40th in the field of 87 runners.
The Golden Eagles finished with a time of 1:45:54, about eight seconds off from their season's best mark of 1:45:48. College of the Ozarks took the team title with a time of 1:40:27.
Up next
Both JBU teams will now turn their attention to the Sooner Athletic Championships, slated for Nov. 4 at the Gordon Cooper Technology Center in Shawnee, Okla.
Sports on 10/25/2017