Anna Harden, Junior Allen Lead Falcons at John McNichols Invite

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. -- Senior Anna Harden and junior Junior Allen paced their respective squads this morning (Sept. 19), as the Air Force cross country team returned to action at the John McNichols Invitational in Terre Haute, Indiana. Racing at the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course – site of this year's national championship meet – the women finished 14th and the men placed 20th.

With a time of 21:09.0, Harden finished 50th in a 6K race that include 230 finishers from 28 programs – including nine nationally-ranked squads. Backed by Harden's finish, all five scoring runners – a quintet of Academy seniors – placed within the top 95 of the overall finish. Ella Johnson finished 58th in time of 21:19.8, while Cam Bodine placed 84th (21:36.2) and the duo of Scarlet Fetterolf and Liliane Aittama finished 91st (21:46.8) and 93rd (21:48.6), respectively, to round out the Falcons' scorers.

The women totaled 355 points for their 14th-place finish – a placement that was seven spots ahead of sister service academy, Navy, who finished 21st with 579 points.

On the men's side, Allen completed the 8K circuit in 24:37.3 to finish 66th in the 271-runner field. Senior Patrick Lawson joined Allen in the top 100 of the overall standings, as he placed 95th with a 24:57.1 finish. Sophomores Auge Martin and Josh Shriver finished 110th (25:04.6) and 111th (25:05.5), respectively, while junior Matthew Edwards rounded out the scoring line with a 121st-place time of 25:11.2.

The men, ranked 23rd in the latest national poll, recorded 499 points to finish 20th out of 34 teams and a field that 14 ranked NCAA Division I program – and 19 ranked squads overall.

Six other Falcons also competed in the Championship races at LaVern Gibson on Saturday morning. Senior Rachel Fereday crossed the 6K finish line in a time of 22:06.7 (115th), while freshman Brooke Samuelson made her collegiate debut (186th, 23:13.1) and junior Jasleen Sidhu (208th, 24:01.2) completed the women's lineup. On the men's side, five places separated junior David Sliwinski (133rd, 25:17.3) and sophomore Bryce Denton (138th, 25:23.3), while senior Dominykas Remeikis completed the men's field with a 175th-place time of 25:58.7.

In addition, junior Patrick Allen raced in the Open division, finishing 12th out of 206 runners in 25:57.3.

The Falcons return to action on Friday, Oct. 9, when they travel to Madison, Wis., for the annual Nuttycombe Invitational at Thomas Zimmer Championship Cross Country Course.

Ryan Cole, Director of Air Force Track & Field and Cross Country
"Our women were very solid today, led by our seniors. Anna and Ella were up front, but all of the senior women did a very effective job, including our mid-distance women who have really developed into strong overall runners."

"Our men struggled. No other way to put it. But one of the objectives of the first big invite is to see where the teams are at and where we can get better. Both teams came off this race knowing there are areas we can improve. So, we'll go back to work and aim to be a better team in early October than we were in mid-September."

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