Charlottesville, Va. – The Western Carolina cross country teams wrapped up their second meet of the season, with both squads placing seventh at the highly competitive Virginia Invitational, hosted by the University of Virginia at Panorama Farms.

"It was a solid enough opening for a lot of our new student-athletes on the men's side. I don't think we gave credit to the difficulty of the course. so that part was pretty tough, along with it being a bit hot," said head coach Jesse Norman, who is looking forward to seeing his team take a mid-season jump in performance. "Solid place for us to jump off for our next big training block and Upstate in mid-October." 

The Catamount men's squad had the best point performance of the two Purple and Gold teams, notching 205 points. Newcomer Bradley White led the pack with a 25:45.6 finish in the 8k. White's finish claimed 42nd individually on the day, with the sophomore Catamount climbing three spots in the final stretch. He was followed in WCU's scoring order by freshmen Jaleb Saunders (52nd - 26:01.8) and Matthias Peterson (53rd – 26:03.1), junior Matthew Womack (55th – 26:07.0), and freshmen Eli Clonch (65th – 26:29.5) and Alexander Ruge (66th – 26:32.47) as the newcomers to the distance program led the way.  

Womack was the highest riser for the Catamounts, leaping 12 spots up the board with his final kick. Alexander Ruge saw a similar rise, moving 11 spots in the final 3,000m as the Catamount men's team finished in a relatively tight grouping, with scoring finishes ranging from 42nd through 66th in the 106 athlete field.  

Katherine Hopkins led the WCU women's team with a 42nd place finish, completing her 5k in 18:33.3. Hopkins' finish was the only Catamount 5k under 19:00 on the day, though Braelyn-Shae Wahy (62nd – 19:01.7), Amaya Hicks (76th – 19:21.7), Peyton Skoglund (78th – 19:25.7), and Riley McKinney (85th – 19:56.1) all had close scoring finishes.

Thanks to the tightly packed finishes by the Catamounts, WCU just edged out the Howard Lady Bison for seventh place, with the 240-246 point difference between the two teams being the closest on the day.  

The Catamount cross country teams is back in action to close out the regular season on Oct. 18, as they head to Spartanburg, S.C., for the Upstate Invitational in the final tune-up for the conference championship. They'll then have a few weeks off from competition before taking on the 2025 Southern Conference Cross Country Championships in Mill Spring, N.C.