SALEM, Va. - The Virginia Wesleyan men's cross team finished 7th at the Roanoke Cross Country Invitational on Friday evening at Green Hill Park in Salem, VA. Five of the eight Marlin competitors lowered their personal best times, with several finishing within seconds of their previous bests.
INSIDE THE RESULTS
Result Link
The field for the Men's 8K race consisted of 15 teams from Division I, II, and III. Division I Radford University competed and took the top spot on the men's side as well, while familiar opponent Roanoke took second and Southern Virginia claimed fourth.
James Johnson led the Marlins crossing the finish line 35th in 27:34.9, :00.3 seconds off his personal best of 27:34.6 set at the Lehigh University Paul Short Run.
June Richardson (45th) was the second Marlin to finish running a time of 28:12.1, which was also a personal best time in the 8K knocking about 14 seconds off their previous best (28:26.2).
Jason Golub ran the race in 28:41.6 with also dropped about 17 seconds off his previous best (28:58.8). Golub crossed the line 55th.
Colton Spence was the fourth VWU runner to finish, crossing the line 61st, in 28:53.5, about 20 seconds over his PR of 28:35.4 set at the 2019 ODAC Cross Country Championships. Rounding out the top-five runners for Virginia Wesleyan was
Ryan Koval who placed 66th with a time of 29:00.0, setting a new personal best coming in 11 seconds under his previous PR of 29:11.7.
Deric Washington,
Landon Crooks, and
Josiah Palma rounded out the VWU racers finishing 93rd, 97th, and 102nd respectively in the field of 146 runners. Washington dropped just shy of a minute off his best 8K time of 31:10.8 finishing the Roanoke Cross Country Invitational in 30:29.2. Crooks crossed the line in 30:49.2, about 30 seconds over his best time of 30:15.9 set at the Paul Short Run. Like many of his teammates, Palma improved his personal best time dropping eight seconds off his time from the Paul Short (31:32.1) lowering his PR to 31:24.3 at the Roanoke Cross Country Invitational.
UP NEXT
The Marlins get another two-week break from the course until October 29th, when they head to Kernstown Battlefield in Winchester, VA, for the 2022 ODAC Championship meet hosted by Shenandoah University.
