MORRISTOWN, Tenn.—Hannah Reese (Brandon, Miss.) ran her way to the first, first-place finish of her senior campaign at the Carson-Newman Invitational at Panther Creek State Park Saturday morning.

Reese crossed the finish line with a time of 20:21, posting her second best time of the season.

The Lady Eagles finished the meet in fourth place. 

"Hannah Reese was great today and capitalized on her strengths," said Carson-Newman head cross country coach Whitney Lee said.  "Her strengths carried her to the win and she made some good decisions throughout the race from what I saw."

While Reese finished tops among Carson-Newman runners once again, Stephanie Savino (Southold, N.Y.) and Amanda Bowman (Greeneville, Tenn.) rounded out the top three Carson-Newman runners in the women's race, posting times of 22:06 and 22:14.  Savino and Bowman finished 17^th and 18^th, respectively. 

"Our ladies, not running on all cylinders, ended up fourth. We were without our number two runner Meredith Nix (Walhalla, S.C.) due to a sickness all week." Lee said.  "It was a late decision not to run her."

Meanwhile, Luke Hall (Seymour, Tenn.) took top team honors in the men's race, finishing 12^th overall with a time of 29:11, his second best time of the season.

Angel Soriano (Weatherford, Tex.) finished 16th, posting a time of 29:11.  Following him was Joey Nielson (Ringgold, Ga.), who finished 26^th with a time of 31:34 to round out the men's top three finishers.

The men also placed fourth overall at the Invitational.

"I'm moderately pleased with both our teams' efforts today," Lee said. "I know they were hoping for a better result to show the home crowd, but we're just not 'there' yet."

Lee also thanked all the Mossy Creek Maniacs and friends of the Eagles that came to Panther Creek Park Saturday morning to show support for both teams.

The Eagles next race will be the Greensboro Cross Country Invitational Sept. 29 at Hagan Stone Park (Greensboro, N.C.)  The women will start their race first, at 1:00 p.m., with the men following at 1:45 p.m.

                -CN-