Lumberjacks Sixth at Auburn Invitational
10/8/2005 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
Oct. 8, 2005
AUBURN, Ala. - The Stephen F. Austin Lumberjack cross country team ran to a sixth-place finish Saturday in the Auburn Invitational, led by a pair of Top 25 finishes by juniors Cody Clark and Chance Edwards. The Lumberjacks scored 202 points, 16 points behind fifth-place team LSU. Auburn scored 99 points to win the men's race.
"Overall, it was a real solid day," SFA cross country coach Lou Snelling said. "We got exactly what we wanted to out of the meet. It was a good tune-up for conference."
Clark, the first Lumberjack across the line, completed the 8,000-meter course in 24:32.06 to finish 17th. Edwards wasn't far behind, finishing 22nd with a time of 24:38.75. Freshman Teddy Fanta finished 46th, with a time of 25:09.37. Junior Rodney Joseph's time of 25:22.90 was good enough for 56th place. Freshman Keith Mahipala finished 80th with a time of 25:47.40. Sophomore Robert Smith (26:19.90) was 117th across the line, and freshman Conor Gillen (26:46.42) finished 142nd.
The Lumberjacks were running competitively for the first time in a month. Due to schedule changes caused by Hurricane Rita, SFA had not run in a meet since the Sept. 10 Texas A&M Invitational. Snelling was pleased with his team's performance coming off the long break.
"This was really our first big race of the season, so we're only going to get sharper from here," the coach said. "I can't wait to see what happens when we get the whole team on the same page for a big meet."
The Lumberjacks' next competition will be the Southland Conference championships, scheduled for Oct. 31 in Natchitoches, La.
-- SFA --
