Young Air Force Squad Has Strong Start in Lincoln

LINCOLN, Neb. – Air Force freshman Saketh Rudraraju paced a young men's cross country team to a runner-up finish among Division I squads (third overall) at the Woody Greeno /Jay Dirksen Invitational this morning (Sept. 21) in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Rudraraju, in his first collegiate 8K, clocked a time of 25:10.14 to finish 12th in a field of more than 340 athletes. Sophomore Roman Thomas finished 27th in a time of 24:42.15, while a trio of freshmen rounded out the Falcons' scoring finish. Junior Allen and David Sliwinski finished 36th (26:00.75) and 38th (26:01.06), while Alexander Pinckney clocked a time of 26:12.71 to complete Air Force's top five.

As a team, the Falcons tallied 129 points to finish third in the full 28-team field.

On the women's side, freshman Carrigan Eberly finished 41st out of 230-plus runners with a 5K time of 19:02.93 to lead a young women's squad to a 10th-place finish in the team standings. Sophomore Scarlet Fetterolf finished 48th with a time of 19:08.90 while freshman Jasleen Sidhu and sophomore newcomer Rachel Fereday finished 52nd (19:17.53) and 59th (19:27.90), respectively. Freshman Colleen Kelly rounded out the Falcons' scoring lineup with a 68th-place time of 10:44/15.

The women tallied 239 points to finish 10th in the full 22-team field.

Four other Falcons also competed their respective circuits around Mahoney Golf Course on Saturday. The freshmen duo of Cody Kelley and Patrick Allen finished 86th (27:00.19) and 94th (27:09.36), respectively in the men's 8K, while sophomore Camryn Bodine finished 75th (19:48.76) and freshman Grace Mullin placed 91st (20:07.48) in the women's 5K.

"Today was a productive day for many of our program's newcomers," Air Force Director of Track & Field and Cross Country Ryan Cole said. "For almost everyone racing, this was their first real college cross country competition and there were a lot of positives. But, hopefully, the full scope of productivity from this event becomes evident over the next few months, seasons and years. We have a very motivated group leaving the course today knowing there's abundant room for improvement."

The Falcons return to action next Friday (Sept. 27), as the men and women split for a pair of meets. The men will travel to Madison, Wis., for the Nuttycombe Invitational, while the women head to Columbia, Mo., for the Gans Creek Invitational.

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