MOBILE, Ala. – Little Rock's women's cross country runners set multiple personal record times while the men recorded their best team finish in four years as the Trojans competed at the Sun Belt Cross Country Championships Saturday morning.
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The Trojan men finished sixth – their best team finish since 2016 – while scoring 152 points, marking their best point total since 2014, as a crop of freshmen led the way.
Andrew Payton posted his first career top team finish as he ran the 8K race in 26:36.9, placing 27
th.
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Meanwhile the women posted three personal-best times including
Kimberley Boni shaving 33 seconds off her best 5K time, running 18:57.6 to place 31
st.
Mia Patria led the Trojan women with a 25
th place finish, running 18:48.3.
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The women's team finished eighth overall out of 11 teams (after Georgia State did not field a team) while the men's competition was out of nine teams (after Coastal Carolina did not field a team) at the league's championship meet.
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The men were all clustered in a group as Little Rock's five scoring runners all finished with in eight spots of each other, led by Payton.
Carter Reynolds was two spots behind, running 26:40.4 to finish 29
th, while being followed by
Spencer Cardinal's 26:51.6 time to place 30
th.
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Nicholas Newby and
Logan Nelson both posted career-best times as Newby finished 31
st after running 26:41.1 while Nelson's time of 27:07.4 placed him 35
th.
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In addition to Boni,
Keila Finnestad ran a career-best time of 20:00.9 to finish 49
th while
Vianney Sanchez ran 19:37.0 to finish 41
st.
Bailey Cronin finished 58
th with a time of 20:40.5 and
Amanda Gordon ran 20:43.4 to finish 59
th to round out the Trojan scorers on the women's side while
Allison Risius ran a career-best time of 21:16.1 to finish 64
th.
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For the latest information on Little Rock Cross Country, make sure to check out
LRTrojans.com. You can also find the team on social media at @LittleRockTFXC on
Facebook and
Twitter.
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#LittleRocksTeam
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