Cross Country | 9/15/2023 10:00:00 PM

CHARLOTTE, N.C.  Methodist University men's and women's cross country teams ran in this year's Queen City Invite on Friday evening. A combination of a smooth course and pleasant weather resulted in some excellent times by the Monarchs.

THE ESSENTIALS
Event: 2023 Queen City Invite (5K women, 8K men)
Location: Larry McAfee Course at McAlpine Park; Charlotte, North Carolina
Top teams, men: 1 – Queens University (35 pts.), 2 – University of North Carolina - Greensboro (65), 3 – Davidson College (72)
Top individuals, men: 1 – Kyle Hinson, Unattached (24:56.79), 2 – Victor Tvistholm Jorgensen, Queens (25:14.23), 3 – John Cooper, Davidson (25:15.42)
Top teams, women: 1 – Queens (29 pts.), 2 – SCAD – Savannah (Ga.) (54), 3 – UNC - Greensboro (69)
Top individuals, women: 1 – Mary Bonner Dalton, Unattached (16:58.21), 2 – Frances Whitworth, Davidson (17:26.64), 3 – Weronika Ptaszynska, Queens (18:02.83)

MONARCH NOTES

• The women's race took place first today and no team score was issued for Methodist due not having enough female runners during the meet.
• Leading the pack for the Monarchs was freshman Makalyn Wilms, who finished in 71^st place, with a time of 23 minutes, 12.69 seconds. This is a new season-best for her as she shaved a little bit more than a minute off her first race two weeks ago.
• Cutting over two minutes off from her first race result of 2023 was Patti Busch after finishing with a 24:23.65 time. Both Adriana Blakeney (29:18.19) and Charmaine Robison (31:03.94) also took time off from their first race, with Blakeney improving by six minutes.
• The men's race started up not to long after the women's race ended. Methodist came in 9^th following the race after collecting 206 points.
• Placing the highest for the Monarchs was Alex Topoly with a time of 27:40.64, which was good for 53^rd overall. Not too far behind was Will Gray (27:57.02) in 58^th place.
• About 30 seconds after Gray, Jack Barriger crossed the finish line and set a new all-time personal record of 28:28.08. Within a minute of him was Gabe Sawyer (29:08.67) and Noah Carter (29:25.44) for Methodist.
• Both Austin Ezzell (29:30.58) and Rafael Shilengitha (30:12.37) performed well than what they did at the Catawba meet with each taking over minute off. Rounding out the Monarchs are a pair of freshman in Landon Faircloth (31:13.36), who competed in his first collegiate race, and Anthony Bidoli (34:12.16).

UP NEXT
Methodist is off until the end of the month when both squads will take part in the 39^th Annual Greensboro Cross Country Invitational. The race is scheduled to begin at 1 PM.