(ANTIGONISH, N.S.) Over 115 runners took to the trails on the campus of St. Francis Xavier University Saturday afternoon at the StFX Cross Country Invitational in the first competitive meet of the AUS season.
The SMU/DAL Invitational, originally scheduled for Sept. 8 was cancelled due to the effects of Hurricane Dorian in Halifax.
The StFX X-Women were the top female team, while the Dalhousie Tigers were the top men's squad.
On the women's side, X-Women runner Jane Hergett emerged victorious on her home course, finishing the 6k race in a time of 21:54.53. Acadia's Madalyn Higgins was second at 22:02.47 and Dalhousie's Catherine Thompson was third at 22:11.18.
The X-Women and Tigers each had three runners finish in the top ten. StFX's Paige Chisholm was fourth, followed by DAL's Emily Hamilton and Renata Kingston in fifth and sixth spots. Breanna Sandluck (StFX) placed seventh and UNB Reds runner Hannah Cormier took the eighth position. Sophie Black of Moncton and Ashley Robson from StFX rounded out the top ten finishers.
StFX won the team title with a total of 36 points. Dalhousie was second with 41, followed by Acadia with 62. UNB placed fourth with 108 points, followed by UPEI with 172.
On the men's side the Dalhousie Tigers earned a close first place victory with 38 points to the second place X-Men with 40. UNB placed third, garnering 75 points. Rounding out the men's team results were Memorial (119), Saint Mary's (122), UPEI (169), Moncton (169) and St. Thomas (207).
In the individual men's results, Saint Mary's Huskies runner Andrew Peverill was the top AUS competitor across the finish line, covering the 8k course in a time of 25:07.28. He was followed by a pair of X-Men runners – freshman Jacob Benoit and fifth year veteran Paul MacLellan with times of 25:16.44 and 25:26.88 respectively.
Tigers runner Jonathan Goodridge came fourth, followed by Isaac Cull (UNB) in fifth place. Dalhousie's Hudson Grimshaw-Surette was sixth, while his teammate Jacob Halloran came eighth after Memorial's Levi Moulton. Daniel Rose (DAL) and Aiden Doherty (StFX) rounded out the top ten finishers.
For complete results, please click here.
The race on the AUS schedule is the Acadia Invitational slated for Saturday, Oct. 5 in Wolfville, NS.
Source: StFX Sports Information