ORLANDO - Stetson cross country posted dual fourth-place finishes against mostly regional opponents Friday evening in the UCF Invite. The teams combined for three top 10 finishes in the two races.
 
"The first meet is always going to be a mixed bag," head coach Bryan Harmon said "you've got excitement and nerves, and you want your upper classmen to hold steady and Jakob McConnell and Parker Hines led with experience. Hines has been dealing with sickness and I was going to hold him out today, but he finished In the top 10 which is great."
 
Cheyenne Durda and Madison Niederriter finished In fifth and ninth, respectively in the women's race with the former recording a time of 18:39.4.
 
"On the women's side, our front three Cheyenne [Durda], Madison [Niederriter] and Sally [Calhoun] held down the fort and led as upper classmen as I mentioned earlier. Cheyenne really ran a great race and massively Improved her position over the course of the race. I think she was 25th at the one-mile mark and finished top 10."
 
Chloe Fernander and Luke Danison were both highlighted by Harmon post-race for their performance as freshmen. Fernander finished fourth among Stetson's women's team placing 26th overall with a 19:51.5 mark. Danison placed second among Stetson men's runners with a time of 16:24.7, which earned 16th overall.
 
"We got a little bit of everything today including some good, okay and some bad. We had a lot of takeaways from today that we'll talk about Sunday at practice. We will keep working over the next couple week and be ready for the next time out." Harmon said.
 
While the teams were combined for today's event, the teams will separate for each team's next event. The women's team performs next at North Florida with the meet to take place in Jacksonville next Friday starting at 7:30 a.m. The next men's team meet takes place October 7 at Florida State in Tallahassee, Florida with a scheduled start of 7:40 a.m.
 
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