JOPLIN, Mo. -- Junior Jacob Benjamin turned in a team-leading performance with a time of 27 minutes, 6.2 seconds and the John Brown University men's cross country team finished 11th at the Missouri Southern State Stampede on Saturday morning.
Benjamin's time was good enough for 28th place overall, marking the first time junior junior Josh Uzelac had not paced the squad since 2015. Uzalec finished just four spots and six seconds behind Benjamin, while freshman Ben Martin ran his first-ever collegiate race, along with fellow freshman Josh Unruh, and nabbed 42nd place with a time of 27:21.6. Unruh also scored for John Brown with a time of 29:29.1 to finish in 111th place.
Elliott Pearson rounded out the scoring for the Golden Eagles, posting a 90th place finish in a time of 28:44.6. The JBU 1-5 split was 2:23.
"It was definitely our first race in a while," head coach Scott Schochler said. "The team competed well against a very strong field, but have a lot of work to do before we are in top race shape. Jacob ran well, and our freshmen all did a great job in their first college race.
"With continued hard work, we will see some great performances in the weeks to come."
Women
Freshman Sarah Larson made a statement in her first collegiate race as she grabbed 58th overall and helped the John Brown University women's cross country team to a 16th place finish out of 22 teams at the Missouri Southern State Stampede on Saturday morning.
The freshman turned in a time of 20:05.3 to lead all Golden Eagle runners in the squad's first outing of 2017. Sophomore Reagan Roth finished second on the team in a time of 20:43.6 to capture 85th overall.
JBU's usual front-runner junior Carly Coney crossed the line in 111th place with a time of 21:11.7 while a pair of newcomers rounded out the Golden Eagle scorers. Junior Kylie Tucker ran 21:31.7 to nab 133rd place while junior Hannah Fiser's time of 22:13.8 earned her 155th overall.
The John Brown scorers had a split time of 2:08.
"Our newcomers did a great job being at the front or towards the front of our team," head coach Scott Schochler said. "Solid performances from our returners, but not quite as fast as we had hoped. It's still early in the season and we know they will run much faster."
Up next
The Golden Eagles cross country teams return to action in two weeks at the Chile Pepper Festival on Sept. 30 at Experimental Farms.
Sports on 09/20/2017