By Coburn Gillies, For The Miami Student
The Miami University cross-country team traveled to Lexington, Kentucky for the Bluegrass Invitational on Saturday. The men's side placed fourth out of seven teams, while the women finished third out of six.
Senior runner Joe Stewart led the RedHawks, finishing third overall in the competition. He completed the 8K course in 24:22.5, which is 1.5 seconds slower than his personal best from the Mid-American Championship last season.
"I mean, time wise, I was real close to a PR," Stewart said. "And team wise, everyone seemed to almost hit their PR as well. All in all, it was a solid day of racing."
The men's team faced stiff competition against University of Kentucky, University of Illinois and the winners of the meet, Eastern Kentucky University. EKU also won the women's event.
"It was great competition between some of these big schools," Stewart said. "It was an awesome opportunity to get to talk to some of the athletes."
Senior Zach McBride came in second for Miami, finishing 19th overall with a 25:05.1 time. Junior Andrew Dusing posted a time of 25:13.4 to earn 21st place. Junior Cody Riesterer (25:40.7; 33rd), redshirt sophomore Jake Brumfield (25:41.7; 34th), junior Stephen Biebelhausen (25:44.6; 36th) and sophomore Ben Metzger (25:49.7) rounded out the scoring.
McBride, Dusing, Brumfield and Metzger each earned a new personal best in the 8K.
In the women's 5K, senior Laura Bess led the RedHawks. Bess finished third overall with a 17:22.3 time. Senior Brenna Poulsen was second for Miami, posting a 18:00.2 time for 14th place. Sophomore Maria Scavuzzo took 17th in 18:04.9 for the third spot on the team. The rest of the scorers include sophomore Sarah Starrett (18:15.6; 22nd), sophomore Alesha Vovk (18:17.1; 23rd), junior Lauren Hoover (18:28.7; 28th) and senior Megan Beaver (18:32.1; 30th).
All seven of the RedHawk scorers posted new personal best times in the 5K.
The cross country program continues its season in South Bend, Indiana at the Notre Dame Invitational Oct. 2.