CONWAY, Ark. – The final 20 meters of the 5,000-meter race at UCA's Cross Country Challenge Saturday ended up being pivotal as Little Rock's
Spencer Cardinal darted past UCA's Fionn Harrington for the top individual finish Saturday.
Cardinal used a late kick to dash past Harrington with a cut at the last second to prevent Harrington from blocking Cardinal's path past him and to the finish line. Harrington ended up tripping himself attempting to make the blocking move as Cardinal dashed past with a 4.7-second advantage in the final times.
His finish, one of three Trojans to place in the top 10 individually, helped the Little Rock men to a close second place finish in the team standings, just 11 points behind the Bears. The Trojan men had all five runners post personal best times in the 5K race.
Andrew Payton, who won at the Warhawk Invitational a week ago, ran 15:29.4 to finish third while
Aaron Soltmann placed seventh with a time of 15:53.5.
The Little Rock women also finished second as a team while also placing three runners in the top 10. The Trojan women were led by freshman
Panagiota Lazarou's second consecutive third place finish in her collegiate career. She also placed third at last week's Warhawk Invitaitonal.
Bailey Cronin ran 19:17.1 to finish ninth and Lindsey Hutecheson posted a personal best tiem of 19:24.6 to place 10
th overall.
Little Rock returns to action on Saturday, Sept. 25 when the Trojans head to College Station, Texas for the Texas A&M Invitational.
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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