WINGATE, North Carolina - The University of Mount Olive men's cross country team kicked off their season today as the Trojans competed at the Bulldog Stampede hosted by the Wingate University Bulldogs. The Trojans finished first overall as a team out of twenty teams, while senior Tai Smith finished second, only .8 milliseconds behind the first-place finisher.

RACE INFORMATION
The men ran an 8K course that features some hilly terrain to challenge the runners. The course that the teams ran today will be the host site for the 2019 NCAA Southeast Regional Cross Country Race later this fall. At regionals the men will run two more kilometer for a 10K race.

EVENT FINISHES
Senior Tai Smith was the highest finishing Trojan claiming a second-place finish with a 25:23.9 time. He finished .8 milliseconds behind the first-place finisher from Wingate University.

Jacob Gonzalez and Brandson Oduor finished third (25:56.7) and fourth (26:07.7) rounding out the top-five finishers for UMO.

Jacob Willis and Daniel Francken crossed the line in seventh and eighth places respectively. Willis finished with a 26:21.6 time while Francken crossed with a 26:23.1 mark.

Sophomore Jay Hall finished inside the top-15 crossing the line in 13th place with a time of 26:48.6 and Altan Cornu rounded out the race for UMO with a 35th place finish (28:10.4).

Link to full results.

UP NEXT
The Trojans are back on the course in two weeks when they head to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, for the Paul Short Invitational. The Paul Short is host by Lehigh University on October 5th and will feature Division I, II, and III teams from across the country