OWENSBORO, KY - Racing in their third meet of the year, the Men's and Women's Cross Country teams showed great progress at the Brescia Invitational. The men ran an 8K while the women ran a 5K.

On the men's side, freshman Tanner Hayes improved on his career 8K best clocking in with a time of 29:15.8, good for 21st in the meet.  Senior James Loi ran a season best 30:06.9 to finish 31st. Freshman Landon Harper closed out the meet for the Panthers with a 31:54.0.

Head Coach Sol Stephen stated "They followed the first half of the race to a T. They put themselves in a good position to move past the men that went out too hard for the back half of the race. Hayes is gaining ground in his training and is seeing the return from his investment, same as Loi. The three of them will be ready to perform season bests in two weeks."

According to Loi "I thought we ran okay. My first two miles were great, and then I started to die off, but I'm proud of how I finished. Tanner ran really well and he continues to grow every day."

In order to make sure everyone is fully prepared for the conference meet in a few weeks, Coach Stephens only ran four in the women's race. Freshman Abigail Lesniak ran an incredible race, finishing in a very impressive 6th place with a time of 19:27.4. Senior Haley Maguire was the second Panther across the line, coming in 40th with a time of 21:40.2. Sophomore Abby Greene was close behind Maguire, coming in with a time of 21:53.1. Senior Sidney Reagor wasn't far behind Green, finishing in a time of 22:17.4, a season's best.

"Three of the four ladies dropped season's bests today, there's not much I can say," stated Sol Stephens. "Going out to the deep end of the pool, Lesniak ran fantastically. Maguire and Reagor put together their best efforts of the season and Greene is still getting back to normal from her time off. We're trending in the right direction with the correct energy and health towards the G-MAC meet. We're excited to prepare for running through 'the wall' soon."

Lesniak said "I am extremely satisfied with how I did today. My goal was to get sub 19, but I gave it my all and that's what really matters. The team did awesome today. Those who raced did great, and the ones who didn't were so supportive of us. I'm so proud of this team and believe we are heading in the right direction to being successful at conference."

Maguire stated "I think the girls team has done well and improved their times. Hopefully we are able to have a good pack at conference to push ourselves. I think I did better than Nashville, I have a lot to improve on but I'm taking this as a positive. I'm excited to see how much more I can improve for the 6K."

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