It was a beautiful afternoon at the Hillsboro Country Club for the Greenville Classic, and the Blackburn College Men’s Cross Country team easily ran their best race of the year. Blackburn raced six athletes among the eighty-eight competitors from ten schools and finished eighth in the team standings. Host, Greenville, won the team competition.

Five of the six Blackburn runners ran the fastest 8k of their careers, and the only exception was the top runner who ran his fastest race in three years! Team captain, Quentin Smith, led the way for the Beavers for the fourth consecutive race, finishing the five-mile course in 32:22. Locke Horde has established himself as Blackburn’s #2 runner and ran a very strong race, finishing in 34:23. Luis Alvarado finished third for Blackburn by dramatically shaving 2.5 minutes off of his fastest 8k, finishing in 35:14. Not far behind were two freshmen, Will Teig and Cody Moore, who ran great races at 35:47 and 37:35, respectively. Finally, Marco Nova set an all-time 8k PR at 42:06, which was five minutes faster than his last race!

Coach Al Sturgeon said, “I expected faster times today, but all six of the men exceeded my expectations! This was our first opportunity to have our six top runners compete in an 8k, and they all just did so well. I am excited to see how they perform with one more opportunity this season at the conference championships!”

The cross country season concludes on October 29 in Louisville, Kentucky, when the women race in the SLIAC championships.