Men's XC Finishes 8th at BJU Night Classic

GREENVILLE, S.C. - The Columbia College cross country teams competed at the Bruins Night XC 6K Classic Friday evening at Bob Jones University in Greenville. The women came away with a 4th place finish out of 13 full squad of teams and 16 teams overall while the men finished 8th among 14 schools.

The Columbia men were led by freshman Alex Blake as he set a new school record running a time of 20:40 to place 25th overall out of 112 in the 3.7 mile, 6K race. Fellow freshman Jesse Gourde then came next for the Koalas placing 35th in 20:56.

The Koalas went on to place 8th with 188 points while finishing 1st among NAIA teams while five Div. II teams placed in the top five. Coming in third on the Koalas and 45th overall was Elijah Fink with a time of 21:17 while senior Kristian Sanchez was 59th in 21:54. Freshman Will Parker then completed the scoring crossing in 22:10 to place 66th. 

Also competing individually were freshmen DJ McGriff-Agers, Jalen Miller, Jimmy Bates, Jude Dill and Jordon Miller. McGriff finished 85th in 23:14 while Ja. Miller was 89th in 23:31. Bates and Dill also ran times of 25:37 and 25:39.