ROCKY MOUNT, N.C.  Methodist cross country performed the rare double-dip Saturday, racing in the N.C. Wesleyan (College) XC Classic less than 24 hours after competing in the adidas XC Challenge.

Head coach Jack Brunecz scheduled the back-to-back meets with a plan to race hard on Friday and then have that group push or pace teammates that were racing Saturday for the first time in the weekend.

Regardless of the 'tempo run' pacing by the Friday competitors, many still had solid runs on Saturday, mixed in with strong runs from the more-rested runners.

The women's six-kilometer race title was captured by Barton College's Isabel Reed, in a time of 24 minutes, 51.4 seconds. And though they had just finished in the top eight in Friday's challenging competition, the Monarchs' Courtney Drumm and Makayla Lawler pushed their tempo run to the tune of second- and third-place finishes, respectively.

The men's eight-kilometer event was won by St. Augustine's (N.C.) University's Baron Freeman, who put nearly a two-minute cushion between himself and the runner-up, crossing the finish line with a time of 26:19.4.

JUST THE FACTS
Event: N.C. Wesleyan (College) XC Classic
Course: WakeMed Soccer Park; Cary, N.C.
Women's 6K team results, top 3: 1 – Meredith (68 pts.), 2 – N.C. Wesleyan (81 pts.), 3 – Mary Baldwin University (88 pts.)
Women's 6K individual results, Methodist scoring runners: 2 – Courtney Drumm (25:01.7), 3 – Makayla Lawler (25:02.4), 41 – Kelly Christ (33:33.1), 42 – Lemlem Gebremichele (33:33.9), 43 – Olivia Mague (33:34.3) 
Men's 8K team results, top 3: 1 – N.C. Wesleyan (33 points), 2 – Barton College (56 pts.), 3 – St. Augustine's (N.C.) University (71 pts.)
Men's 8K individual results, Methodist scoring runners: 12 – Andrew Topoly (29:23.3), 18 ­– Stephen Dukes (31:00.4), 30 – Cameron Adair (33:38.7), 31 – Hunter Snyder (33:39.7), 35 – Isaiah Florez (34:29.8)

RACE NOTES

• Drumm's and Lawler's results were positives for Brunecz, given the work they'd already put in on Friday. But Brunecz had to also be pleased by the pack-running finish of his next four runners as Christ, Gebremichele, Mague and Ally Mattera (33:34.6) finished within 1.5 seconds of each other.
• Close behind, really, really close behind, was Clarece Krause (34:04.0), while Jessica Womble (34:18.7) was still within reach of the Methodist pack.
• Topoly was Methodist's top finisher at the adidas meet, and led the squad again on Saturday.
• A rested Dukes had a nice top-20 finish, while Cameron Adair (a Friday participant) teamed with Snyder to end their afternoon one second apart.
• In his first race since the season-opening Monarch Classic, Florez came across the finish one-tenth of a second ahead of teammate Connor Ayers (another Friday runner).
• Down the line, Baron Gossman (34:41.9) and Logan Krubsack (34:42.2) were another Monarch pairing, as was also Jonathan Wertz (35:38.9) and John Larsen (35:38.9).

UP NEXT
The Monarchs are right back at it, with a Friday meet in Charlotte, N.C. The Queen City Invite last fall attracted a massive start group from 50 different institutions.