CRESSON, Pa. – While some of the Franciscan University cross country team competed in the All-Ohio Championships yesterday, including the winner of the race Bill Jones, others competed in the Mt. Aloysius Invitational today where both teams posted third place finishes.

Racing on what FUS coach Shaun McKeegan called, "the perfect cross country course through woods, by water, by streams and over rolling hills," the Lady Barons' top finisher, senior Theresa Kovach, posted a personal record of 26:47.7. It was the first 6K that the Lady Barons had run all season after running 5K's in all their previous matches.

Also finishing in the top 15 for the Lady Barons were two freshman, tenth place finisher Kate Porter (27:00.1) and Ashley Wesolowski, who finished in thirteenth place with a time of 27.20.5.

"Since it was the first 6K for the women and given the nature of the course, we had them go out much slower from the get-go than they normally would," McKeegan said. "We found that the second part of the race, for some of the runners, there were a lot of negative splits, while others got much stronger and were able to pass."

In the men's race the top finisher for Franciscan was sophomore Michael McLaughlin who ran a time of 30:51.6 to finish in thirteenth place while junior David Williems finished in sixteenth place with a time of 32:08.7.

McKeegan said that this was a warm-up race for the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference Championship race, which is going to be run on the same course.

"It's the kind of course that every cross country runner loves to run because of the challenge and it puts you up against the wits and the mental stamina as you're trying to read your opponent," McKeegan said. "We knew going in because of the nature and conditions of the course that it wouldn't be the type of race where you're running against the clock, but instead running against the person to your left and right. Overall, we were very happy with the way people ran today."

Both the men's and the women's team have one more race before the AMCC Conference Championships on October 27, when they travel to Oberlin, Ohio, for the Intra-Regional Rumble.