OBERLIN, Ohio – The Franciscan University men's and women's cross country teams ran in one of their most competitive meets of the year at the Intra-Regional Rumble in Oberlin, OH. The meet featured 40 Division-III teams spanning from across the Midwest and into New York, many of whom flew into Oberlin in order to compete.

FUS as a team finished 32 out of the 40 teams but got strong performances from their top runners as they prepare for the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference Championships. Oberlin's course had difficult running conditions due to weather and the Barons had to power through the obstacles in order to set a number of personal records.

"A lot of our athletes broke their personal best times for the year," Head Coach Daniel Keubler said. "The course was pretty torn up because of the rain but we have athletes that are used to running in all kinds of conditions. They haven't ran in optimal weather all season."

Leading the pack for the men's team was junior Patrick Flanagan who broke his season 8K record with a strong time of 27:30. Flanagan is in good position as the regular season comes to an end to race competitively against AMCC top performers, Penn St. – Behrend.

"Patrick was really close to their fastest runner," Kuebler said. "He is doing really well and is closer to their fastest runners that he was last year."

Flanagan's strategy seems to be paying off in the season's final stages. During practice one of his biggest contributions is keeping the team lighthearted. He has also been making sure not to over train so that he will be well rested for his meets.

"He really saves it for the meets," Kuebler said. "He is laid back in practice and that extra energy carries over when he needs it the most."

Also for the men, first year runner David Byers broke sub 29 minutes for the first time in his career. Byers and Flanagan are both expected to qualify for NCAA DIII Great Lakes Regional Meet on Nov 16.

"We want to finish in the AMCC in the top three," Kuebler said. "We want to get as many guys in All–Conference as we can. We will have at least these two guys but we want more than that."

The women they had a staggering performance as their five fastest runners all finished within 50 seconds of each other. Junior Allison Huelseman led the Lady Barons with a 6k time of 25:10, a new personal record.

"This is the best finish we have had for our women all year," Kuebler said. "We have a really strong group of women going into our Conference Championships. Our third fourth and fifth runners all ran strong today."

The next step for Franciscan Cross Country will be the AMCC Conference finals meet in Buffalo, NY on Nov 2.