McCambridge, Cole guide Eagles at Wingate Invitational

McCambridge, Cole guide Eagles at Wingate Invitational

Men's 8k results
Women's 6k results

WINGATE, N.C. – The Carson-Newman cross country team finished 10th out of 19 participants on the men's side and the women placed 12th out of 20 teams at the Wingate Invitational in Wingate, North Carolina.

The men took on their second consecutive 8k and were led by Conal McCambridge (United Kingdom) who finished 10th at 26:27.6.

"It was a strong performance for him," acting coach Luke Greer said. "I told him to go up there with the leaders and hold on. I'm really impressed with what he did."

Freshman Jasper Wilson (Chickamauga, GA) finished second among the Eagles for the second consecutive event after coming in 46th out of 147 participants at a time of 28:36.4.

"It was a gritty, grimy performance," Greer said. "It was a tough week of training for him so he worked as hard as he could and it was just the second 8k he's ever run."

Hunter Miller (Brooklyn, MI), Kirby Logan (Andersonville, TN) and Channler Boothe (Lebanon, VA) all finished within two minutes of their fellow freshman, Wilson.

"The other freshmen were right on his tail behind him and I'm really happy with how we performed as a team," Greer said.

The women ran their first 6k of the season, led by top Eagles finisher Aubree Cole (Cartersville, GA) who placed 56th at a time of 25:54.4.

"It was another tough race, it was their first 6k of the season," Greer said.

"Bree had a great race. She wasn't happy after [the Lenoir-Rhyne Invitational] so she went really hard in practice and I'm happy with how she performed."

Freshmen Klara Naude (South Africa) and Angela Dela Cruz (Morristown, TN) both crossed the finish line less than two minutes after Cole, placing 65th and 76th respectively.

Sophomore Alexis Brown (Chattanooga, TN) finished inside the top-100, placing 99th overall after finishing less than two minutes after Dela Cruz in a packed contest consisting of 149 racers.

"We have a great pack of women that are running and battling together," Greer said. "They work hard together and use each other to improve."

Sophomore Rachel Strayer did not participate in the event after winning the Lenoir-Rhyne Invitational outright, placing first overall with a time of 19:01.85 in the 5k. 

"She had a nagging injury this week," Greer said. "We thought it would be better this week to hold her out and make sure she's good to go for the rest of the season. Hopefully by next race she'll be ready to go."

For the men's 8k, Mount Olive finished first as a team while fellow South Atlantic Conference members Wingate, Catawba, Lenoir-Rhyne and Lincoln Memorial University placed ahead of the Eagles in the top-ten.

On the women's side, Wingate and Lenoir-Rhyne took first and second respectively while Catawba and LMU were also among teams with top ten scores.

It was the 10th running of the event which also goes by the name of the Bulldog Stampede. 

The Carson-Newman cross country team will run again at the Louisville Classic in Louisville, Kentucky on Saturday, Oct. 5th at 9 a.m. Be sure to keep up with the team all across the Eagles' social media platforms and on cneagles.com.