30 NCAA, NAIA, and JUCO teams from as far away as New Jersey and the Caribbean competed at the Embry-Riddle Cross-County Classic Saturday on the most challenging cross-country course in Florida. The men's team finished 8^th and the women's team was 10^th.

Freshman Jaxon McKim finish a mere 12 seconds behind sophomore Brennan Popik who led the men's team for the 4^th straight week. The pair was followed closely by Luke Williams, Adrian Figueroa, Noe Benitez, Corey Rhoads, and Nicholas Terry. A blistering kick from sophomore Adrian Figueroa over the last 200m moved the men to 8^th place just 3 points ahead of NCAA D1 rivals Bethune- Cookman University "We saw a much tighter pack time (2:04) from our Top 5 than any meet this season and that's very encouraging." Commented Head coach Jody Hale.

Freshman Lynn Winkler moved up the team ranking 3 spots to lead the women's team to a 10^th place finish just 3 points ahead of cross state region 8 rivals the Panthers from South Florida State. Zandi Pienaar followed just 25 seconds back. Meghan Bonser, Kayleigh McWatters, both finished just 3 seconds behind in the same time. Whitney Mathis finished 45 seconds later for a pack time of 1:20. Sophomore Abigail Gray chopped almost 5 minutes of her time on the same course last year.  "We came with a race plan and the women executed it perfectly. Only 1 minute and 20 seconds separated Lynn and Whitney (the top 5 scorers) and that pack time will work to our advantage in the post season big meets." Added Coach Hale when asked about the team's performance.

The teams have a bye week this weekend and will travel to South Florida State on the 30^th to compete in the South Florida State College Panther XC Invitational.