Clarksville, AR - The Men's and Women's Cross Country teams kicked off their 2017 fall seasons, as the two teams began competition with the Arkansas Dlll Championships hosted by Ozarks.

The teams competed hard, but both finished with tough-luck last place finishes. The men scored 45 team points and the women came away with 28 when the dust settled.

"It was fun to get out there for our first race of the year," said New Head Coach Brian Merkel. "I thought we raced really well, considering it was the first college race for a lot of our runners. It's good to know where we stand now and we look forward to improving before our next race. Ozarks ran a great race and we want to thank them for hosting the meet."

Top runners for the men included Nathan Andress, running the top time for Hendrix at 17:33 to finish in third place overall, Graham Anderson finishing with a 20:46 time to take home 13th place, and Nick Maynard wrapping up the top three for the Warriors with a 20:53 finish.

Likewise, the women's top finishers were as follows: Mackenzie Gearin, leading the charge at 14:14 for a second place finish; Melissa Pizza ran the course in 15:07 which was good for second on the team and third overall, and Liesl Krone rounded out the women's top three with a 15:50, fifth place finish.

Both teams will now return to practice for the next week in preparation for their next meet.  Their next slate of competition will come on September 9th in Conway, AR for the UCA Cross Country Challenge.  That meet will be hosted by Central Arkansas University.