Results
CARY, N.C. (Sept. 15) – In a highly competitive field at the Adidas XC Challenge, the University of Mount Olive men's cross country program recorded a top-10 finish in the team standings on Friday evening at WakeMed Soccer Park.
The Trojans finished 10th overall as a team with 318 points while posting an average time of 20 minutes, 15.64 seconds. NC State captured the individual title with 15 points behind the top six finishers in the race. William & Mary finished second overall in the team standings with 80 points and Duke followed close behind with 86 points in a field of 17 teams.
Junior
Riley Willcox led Mount Olive for a consecutive event and crossed the line with a time of 19:36.2 to place 56th overall in the six-kilometer race with over 150 runners competing. At the two-kilometer checkpoint, he registered a time of 9:18.8 before jumping nine positions over the final stretch of the race.
Freshman
Evan Hall delivered another solid performance in his first year with the Trojans after posting a time of 20:08.1 to finish 73rd overall. Junior
Ashton Olmstead placed five spots back in 78th with a time of 20:18.9 after leaping eight positions over the final four kilometers of the competition.
Sophomore
Josh Hendren produced a great final stretch after climbing 18 slots on the individual leaderboard following the two-kilometer mark to place 85th with a time of 20:31.7. Junior
Richard Villafranco rounded out the team scorers after crossing the line with a time of 20:43.3 to finish 90th overall, while also jumping nearly 15 positions in the final four kilometers.
Senior
Nathanael Bierly and sophomore
Matthew Riggs finished back-to-back to place 109th and 110th in the field. Bierly registered a time of 21:20.3 while competing in North Carolina and Riggs recorded a time of 21:27.6. Freshman
Devon Coughlin finished 141st overall with a time of 25:32.5 and teammate
Shamar Cowan posted a time of 26:42.5 to place 144th.
The Trojans are idle for the next three weeks before competing at the Royal XC Challenge hosted by Queens on Oct. 6 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
