MEN'S GOLD RACE RESULTS
MEN'S OPEN RACE RESULTS
PHOTO GALLERY

Sophomore Patrick Crawford led the High Point University men's cross country team to a third-place finish in the Blue Ridge Open on Friday afternoon in Boone, N.C. Crawford finished third overall and junior Jacob Smith placed fifth.

"I was really pleased with Patrick Crawford, he took a nice step forward racing up a couple of professional runners," said HPU head coach Mike Esposito. "Jacob Smith continued his consistency which is a good indicator for a breakthrough in two weeks. I was also very pleased with John Yankello and Reece Ayers. This meet was good preparation for the Big South Championship in two weeks and was a nice bounce back from the Paul Short Invitational. Today's performance was a lot more reflective of the type of team we have."

High Point finished third in the team standings with 96 points behind only George Mason (40) and Wake Forest (57). Appalachian State finished fourth with 127 points. HPU topped Big South schools Campbell (eighth), Winthrop (ninth), Radford (14th), UNC Asheville (16th), Coastal Carolina (19th) and Gardner-Webb (21st).

Crawford finished third overall and was the top collegiate finisher in 24:38.2 behind only Cameron Bean of ZAP Fitness (24:25.1) and post-collegiate runner Sandy Roberts (24:28.3). Crawford ran with Bean and Roberts throughout the race, falling back to third over the last mile.

Smith was also among the leaders throughout the race and finished fifth overall in 25:06.1. He dropped behind Crawford with about a mile to go and couldn't hold off Wake Forest's Garret Drogosch, who placed fourth. Smith was the third collegiate finisher.

Senior Neal Darmody was the third Panther to cross the finish line, placing 25th overall with a time of 25:46.9.

Freshman Reece Ayers placed 41st and sophomore John Yankello placed 44th to finish out High Point's scoring. Ayers, who battled injuries over the past several months, had a strong race to finish in 26:02.1. Yankello finished in 26:07.8.

Senior Mike Ali placed 66th in 26:31.1 and junior Jonathan Riley placed 92nd in 27:03.1 to finish out the gold race for the Panthers.

In the open race at the Blue Ridge Open, freshman Chris Colo led High Point with a third-place finish in a time of 26:34.3. Freshman Michael Colven placed 15th in 27:55.6 and junior Anthony Kilar placed 16th in a time of 28:19.1.

The meet was the Panthers' final tuneup before the Big South Championship, which will be held on Saturday, Oct. 29 at Quail Creek Golf Club in Conway, S.C. High Point has been runner-up at the Big South Championship four times in a row and was picked No. 1 in the Big South Preseason Poll this year.