MORRISTOWN, Tenn. -- Led by another strong outing from Beth Burgess, the Covenant women's cross country team placed third out of eight participants in the Carson-Newman Invitational on Saturday morning. The men's cross country team, led by Stephen Dillon, finished in sixth.
In the women's 5k, Burgess placed sixth individually with a time of 20:52, just seconds behind the fourth and fifth place runners. Burgess was coming off a 16th place finish among Division I runners last weekend in the UTC PowerAde Invitational.
Spookie Eaves wasn't far behind Burgess as she placed eighth with a time of 21:12. Esther Anderson (22:16) and Emily Davis (22:30) finished 19th and 22nd, respectively. Melanie White rounded out the top five Covenant finishers with a time of 23:47 which was good enough for 30th. The event was the first 5k distance for the Lady Scots this season.
The Lady Scots tallied 85 points, which beat out host Carson-Newman along with four other schools. Carson-Newman's Hannah Reese took the top individual spot with her time of 20:21.
On the men's side, Dillon paced the Scots with a 17th place finish after a run of 30:20. Stephen Harper finished 23rd with his 8k time of 31:27, while Micah Schreiner ran the course in 31:58 that put him in 29th. Jack Williams (34th, 33:17) and Andrew Sanders (42nd, 38:58) completed the course for Covenant. As was the case on the women's side, this was the first 8k event for the men.
The men edged out Maryville College with their 145 total points. Unattached participant Simon Holzapfel ran a time of 27:10 to take first place.
Both teams will be free from competition for the next two weeks before they head to Douglasville, Ga. to take part in the GSAC Pre-Conference meet.