LATROBE, Pa.- Franciscan University Cross Country travelled to the Seton Hill Invitational on Saturday and stood their own on a challenging course against DI and DII teams. The men's team finished fourth out of four teams and the Lady Barons, fifth out of six.

"We had some good races on a really difficult course against some top-notch competition," head coach Dan Kuebler said. "We knew we weren't going to do really well in terms of team competition but we were just using this as an early season measuring point to see how we are and to handle a really tough course."

Junior Patrick Flanagan led the men's team with a 14th place finish. Flanagan's time of 31:10 compares competitively to the winning time of 28:50 on the Seton's slower course. Freshmen Emmett Delaney and Thomas Eversall also ran well for such grueling terrain.

"Emmit and Thomas probably had the two best races of the day," Kuebler said. "Emmit finished third on the team and Thomas finished seventh, but even so they just ran very, very strong races."

FUS went out strong into the challenging course of rolling hills, trails, and three significant hills. Despite the tough race, the Barons still performed well, remaining competitive with DII opponent, Seton Hill.

On the women's side, Colene Smith and Molly Chambers led the Lady Barons for a successful day on the course. Both had strong races, with Smith finishing in 35th with a time of 23:06 and Chambers, second for FUS, finishing 40th with a time of 24:09.

"Colene Smith has the best race of her time here at Franciscan," Kuebler said. "There were more teams with the women so it was a bit of a bigger race and it was not her fastest time ever because it was such a slow course, but it was by far her best race."

The Lady Barons beat the only other Division III team, Pitt- Johnstown, that competed in the meet. Kuebler, impressed with both the men's and women's teams, especially against the day's competition, is confident that they will continue to run at their highest potential moving forward.

"We didn't see any other teams that we normally run against," Kuebler said. "We want to run against these stronger teams to challenge ourselves on a tough course, see where we are at. They did really well for having to run against mostly scholarship runners."

The Barons will continue their season at the National Catholic Championships in South Bend, Indiana on September 20th