TERRE HAUTE, Ind. -- The George Fox cross country teams had a stellar performance at the DIII National Preview, facing some of the top teams in Division III on the 2-24 championship course; The women finished in ninth place overall, while the men came in third.

Top Performances
In the Women's 6000m Championship, Breanna Schmitt blazed to a top ten finish for Fox with a time of 21:47.09. Less than a minute behind, with a time of 22:10.18, was Ellie Rising. Hope Bridge finished next for the Bruins at 23:03.19 in 82nd place, while Sarah Pullen was in 89th place with a mark of 23:08.95.

Hannah Tranby was next with a time of 23:28.47, while Abbie Goodwin was on her toes with 23:39.72. In 131th place was Karina Rodriguez, with a time of 23:41.64. The Bruins, whoe headed into the meet ranked No. 19 in the nation, finished in ninth place overall with a total of 291 points.

In the Men's 8000m Championship, Austin Gappa was the top-fonishing Bruin in eighth place with a time of 24:41.43, while Aidan Arthur was just under 25 minutes at 24:59.37. Alex Mills crossed the finish line in 35th place in 25:21.01, while Andrew Ross was just five seconds away with 25:26.19. Gavin Grass had a time of 25:32.42 in 51st place, and shortly after, Kellen Ruiz came in at 25:38.48. Caden Hildenbrand was next with a time of 25:52.79. The Bruin Men finished in third place overall with a score of 152.  

In a race stacked with top 35 teams, the women finished ahead of one ranked team (No. 18 Central), while the men finished in front of five (No. 12 MIT, No. 21 WashU, No. 26 Loras, No. 28 Haverford, and No. 29 UC Santa Cruz).

Coach's Thoughts
"On the men's side, we ran decently tonight, but I think we left a lot out there on the course honestly," Bruin head coach Mike Wilson said, "We had some strong individual performances. Austin ran phenomenally and Aidan had a huge day. I do think we were a little flat elsewhere, but we have time to fine tune."

"For the women, Bree had a fantastic run tonight and Ellie had a strong evening as well," Wilson continued, "We had a bit of a tough day on the women's side overall. We've been dealing with some sickness and frankly, travel didn't help that, but we'll be alright. We have a strong group and we're looking forward to the latter half of the year."

Up Next
The Bruins will now travel to Estacada, Ore., for the Lewis and Clark Invite at Milo McIver State Park. The meet is scheduled to start at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, October 19.