COMPLETE RESULTS
PHOTO GALLERY

The High Point University men's cross country team placed third at the Covered Bridge Open to start the 2011 season on Friday in Boone, N.C. Junior Jacob Smith led the Panthers with a seventh place finish, just ahead of freshman Jeff LaCoste, who placed ninth.

"This was a good start to the season and we did pretty much what we wanted to today," said HPU head coach Mike Esposito. "We had the guys working in groups with the goal to close strong, and pretty much everyone did that. Jacob Smith had a really good summer of training and it showed today."

Smith closed strongly to complete the 8,000-meter course in 25:51.9. LaCoste placed ninth in 26:01.3, edging Southern Indiana's Michael Callison at the finish. Florida State's Seth Proctor won the meet in 25:29.1 and Wake Forest's Paul Loeser took second in 25:40.2.

Sophomore Patrick Crawford ran the second half of the race very strong and passed several runners to place 17th in 26:20.8. Crawford is coming off a shoulder injury that limited his training over the past month. Senior Neal Darmody placed 20th in 26:26.4.

Junior Dakota Peachee placed 32nd in 26:44.5 and was the fifth Panther to cross the finish line. Freshman Chris Colo had a strong debut, placing sixth for the team and 42nd overall in a time of 27:06.0 in his 8K cross country debut. Sophomore John Yankello placed 57th (27:37.1), senior Mike Ali placed 63rd (27:45.1) and freshman Michael Colven took 69th in 27:58.4.

Finishing out the race for High Point were senior Mike Feroe in 87th and junior Jonathan Riley in 97th.

Southern Indiana won the team title with 42 points followed by Florida State with 59 points and HPU with 85. The Panthers came in ahead of Appalachian State (96), North Florida (131) and six other schools.

High Point University will be back in action in two weeks when the Panthers race in the Big South Preview at Coastal Carolina on Sept. 17 in Conway, S.C. The race will be on the same course as the Big South Championship.