The Lee University cross country teams began the 2016 season Saturday morning with a trip to the Furman Cross Country Classic where the Flames finished fourth overall (second among non-Division I schools) and the Lady Flames were third in the 18-team non-DI field. Both squads travel to Montevallo, Ala., on Sept. 17 to participate in the Falcon Classic.
Host Furman scored 22 points for the team win in the men’s race. The Paladins are ranked No. 13 in NCAA Division I. Mount Olive (No. 19 in DII) was second with 93 points, while Auburn University was third with 102 points. The Flames accumulated 113 points to finish ahead of fifth-place Clemson University.
“Our men had a great day,” said Lee head coach Caleb Morgan. “Christian Noble and Brandon Raleigh did a fantastic job leading us. We did not expect two freshmen (Noble and Hindle) to be in our top four today. This is a good sign moving forward. We will drop time as we get used to racing the next couple of weeks.”
Noble finished eighth in the field of 226 runners with a time of 25:15.05. Raleigh, a senior, and junior Seth Eagleson placed 12th and 13th. Raleigh stopped the clock at 25:26.22 and Eagleson crossed the line at 25:36.83.
“Noble showed his talent today against some of the top DI runners in the country. I am proud of the way he executed in his first-ever 8K race,” added Morgan.
Hindle finished his first collegiate race in 36th (26:23.15). Junior Harold Smith’s mark of 26:47.20 for 52nd and freshman Moises Ponce was 57th (26:51.80).
Two more freshmen (Thomas Kelton and Jared Herzog) joined Matt Jenkins as the final three across the finish line. Kelton had a time of 27:42.08 (87th), Jenkins was 97th (27:54.58) and Herzog was 102nd (27:59.63).
No. 19 University of Montevallo was the team winner of the women’s race with 39 points and Emory University was second (46 points). The Lady Flames recorded a team score of 65.
“Our women are exactly where we expected to be,” said Morgan. “Four out of our top six women are freshmen. We expect a lot of improvement to come out of this bunch as they get used to collegiate racing.”
Junior Audrey Smith was the first Lady Flames to cross the finish line, second among 164 non-DI runners, with a new Lee 6K record time of 22:04.98. The previous record of 22:21.09 was set a year ago on the same Furman course by Jessica Childers.
“Audrey finally got to show off her new fitness, running a new school record by 17 seconds. She is very poised and it shows in her racing,” added Morgan.
Sophomore Amy Carpenter finished eighth with a time of 22:56.45. Freshmen Blakely Moore and Becca Umbarger were 17th (23:16.66) and 18th (23:22.92).
Two more freshmen gave the Lady Flames six finishers in the top 27. Lily Fell was 20th (23:27.86) and Charlee Boxall stopped the clock at 23:49.75 (27th).
The next three Lee runners across the line were sophomores Lacey Duvall (24:54.74, 52nd), Logan Hernandez (25:10.39, 58th) and Savannah Ratcliff (25:18.52, 62nd). The final Lady Flame across the line was freshman Cassidy Devenouges (25:32.22, 70th).