The Chattanooga women placed ninth overall at the North Alabama Showcase and the men finished 13th Friday morning at the John Hunt Park in Huntsville, Ala.
“The ladies ran well,” Mocs head coach Andy Meyer said. “Our depth, which we did not have in previous years, was a huge factor.”
The Mocs’ top runner in the season-opening race, Justine Glass, was coming off illness and a limited week of workouts.
“Justine had a subpar performance,” Meyer said. “Lesley [Green] and Makenzie [Jones] and especially Emma [Russum] and Ashtyn [Hagood] all picked up for her and helped carry us to a decent placing.
Justine feeling well is a 50-point swing for us.”
Green was Chattanooga’s top finisher placing 39th with a time of 18:03.23, besting her previous top time by nearly 20 seconds. Jones was next for the Mocs at 18:19.23 and Russum was just a few spots behind her with a PR time of 18:30.60. Glass finished 59th for UTC at 18:32.49 and Hagood, running in her first collegiate 5K, was the fifth scoring runner for the Mocs at 19:02.71.
Morgan Oulette ran her first collegiate 5K and Faith Brown was just half a second off her personal best. Brooke Rieves and Julianna McReynolds both set PRs in the race of 171 entries.
The women finished ahead of South Region No. 5 Tennessee (10th) and ETSU (11th) as well as Southern Conference foe Mercer who finished the race 19th out of 21 teams. Samford was the top SoCon team in the race, finished fifth overall.
Ole Miss, ranked 15th nationally, took first with 20 points with six runners in the Top 10. Lipscomb, ranked 11th in the South Region by USTFCCCA, finished second ahead of No. 7 Alabama who is the top team in the South.
The guys ran a pretty decent race today,” Meyer said. “We used this as a development race. We had a plan that the kids stuck to getting faster as we progressed.”
In the men’s race, Jonathan Boyd led the Mocs. He moved up 13 spots in the final 3-kilometers to finish 55th with a time of 25:51.37. Ryan Phillips and Jasper Wilson each set PRs in the meet. Phillips was 74th with a time of 26:11.04 and Wilson placed 100th at 27:08.15. Freshman Aaron Isbell, running his first collegiate 8K race, was the fourth Moc across the line and Kaigen Mulkey completed the scoring runners.
“Everyone held or gained placing in the second half of the race,” Meyer said. “Jonathan gained 12 places, Ryan gained 14 and Jasper moved up 13. Kaigen gained four spots and Eric 14. Eammon and Aaron held steady.”
Alabama won the men’s race followed by Lipscomb, South Alabama and Ole Miss.
“We are very proud of everyone today,” Meyer said. “Several of the kids set PRs and it’s still early in the season. We have not let off the volume or intensity yet, so we did this with pretty heavy legs. To have such results certainly bodes well for the rest of the season.”
Today’s race served as a preview for the NCAA South Region Meet that will be run on the same course in November.
The Mocs return to action in two weeks at the Greater Louisville Cross Country Classic.