University of Tennessee at Chattanooga junior Teghan Henderson (Pickering, Ontario) placed first at the JSU Foothills Cross Country Invitational and led the women’s cross country team to a second place finish while the men, paced by junior Paul Stuart (Brentwood, Tenn.), also finished second.
Henderson, with nearly a year out of competition due to injury, set a meet record with a time of 17:15.47 despite the rain that fell throughout.
“She looked good,” Chattanooga head coach Bill Gautier said.
“She ran smart and kept moving up and got past the runner from Kennesaw State and kept going.”
Also running well was sophomore Emily Drouin (Verona, Ontario) who placed third overall with a PR time of 17:44.53 over the 5-kilometer course.
“Emily had a huge race,” Gautier said. “She finished ahead of all the Auburn runners. I’m really pleased with how everyone ran today.”
The women placed all seven runners in the Top 20 and was second behind Auburn with 36 points. The Tigers finished all five scoring runners in the Top 10 with 25 points. Georgia State was third with 116 points, Lipscomb finished fourth (135) while former Southern Conference foe Georgia Southern was fifth with 144 points and current SoCon member Mercer was sixth with 147 points.
Senior Rebecca Greenwall (Bogart, Ga.) was the third UTC runner to cross the finish line with a season-best time of 18:20.38 followed immediately by sophomore Jessica York (Afton, Tenn.) at 18:25.72 and junior Hannah Chamblin (Memphis, Tenn.) at 18:27.46.
Stuart led the men to a second place finish behind Auburn with 84 points. He placed fifth overall with a PR time of 25:19.81 over the 8K course.
“Paul was our only runner on the course who has experience with the 8-kilometer distance,” Gautier said. “Our veterans have not run that far and this is the first for the freshmen who ran a 5K in high school.”
Freshman Richard Guiry (Nashville, Tenn.) was the second UTC runner to finish with a time of 26:39.77 followed immediately by fellow newcomer Mark Britt (Lebanon, Tenn.) with a time of 26:40.00. Freshman Jack Strevell (Nolensville, Tenn.) clocked a time of 27:26.92 and junior Austin Ethridge (Signal Mountain, Tenn.) was next across with a time of 27:28.47. Senior Zack Darby (Knoxville, Tenn.) closed the distance in a time of 27:39.77.
“This is very encouraging for our program,” Gautier said. “We’re headed in the right direction.”
Chattanooga finished ahead of Troy (95 points), Lipscomb (97) and fellow Southern Conference member Mercer who was fifth overall with 101 points.
Chattanooga will host the annual Front Runner Invitational in two weeks on Saturday, October 17 at the Moccasin Bend Race Course.