PITTSBURGH, Pa. – Franciscan University's men and women's cross country teams faced a challenging course and competition Saturday morning for the Carnegie Mellon Invitational at Schenley Park. Facing universities in division one through three, the Barons placed 12^th out of 22 teams and the Lady Barons clinched an invitational trophy with a third place finish out of 24 teams.

For the first half of the men's 8K and the women's 5K course, the runners faced a progressively downhill course, only to have to turn around and finish the second half running up the same hill. Despite these tiring features, both teams persevered and came out successful.

Freshman Nicole Krajewski clipped a time of 19:14, placing eighth overall out of 261 girls. Katherine Manion followed close behind in 13^th place with a time of 19:41. Krajewski and Manion were the first and second place runners for the Lady Barons on the day.

Wayne State University and Carnegie Mellon finished in first and second place, respectively. The Franciscan Lady Barons followed with a team score of 119.

Kevin LeRoy, Franciscan's number one runner for the meet, placed 55^th out of 234 runners with a time of 27:42. Franciscan's second runner of the day, Joey Schlueter, placed 70^th overall with a time of 27:59.

Two essential members of the Franciscan team were missing from the meet. Bill Jones and Teresa Evans were out due to injuries.

Franciscan's cross country team will return to this course at Schenley Park for the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference Championship October 30. Until then, Franciscan will run in the Cross Country Intra-Regional Rumble in Oberlin, Ohio, next Saturday, October 16.