Charlotte, N.C. – A solid performance from North Greenville Men's Cross Country landed the Crusaders 10^thoverall and 2^nd out of competing Conference Carolinas teams at the Royals XC Challenge. 

The program finished top 10 among all programs over all divisions including Division I.
 
Hayden Goode led North Greenville with the second fastest 8K time of his collegiate career. Goode finished 29^thoverall with a time of 25:32. Mason White finished 94^th overall, finishing with a time of 26:46. 
 
Solomon Canup turned in a lifetime personal best performance with a time of 27:54. He finished 160^th overall. 
 
David Kusnir also had a lifetime personal best for an 8K race with a time of 31:32. 
 
From Coach Stober 
 
"What a great way to wrap up our regular season. Both teams ran really well today. The women's team was led by Riley Nicholson who had the race of her life. She cut 10 seconds off her 5K PB (which just so happens to be on a track). Typically PBs on the track will be faster than on a XC course, so the fact that she ran 10 seconds faster today than she did during track season last year says a lot about her fitness and where she's at right now. Riley is a hard worker and it's been exciting to see her hard work come to fruition over the past two races. Her time today is #2 all-time in program history for 5K (XC). Cecily continues to impress. She went out a little fast today, but managed to hang on to run a solid time. Her time was a new collegiate PB and is now #5 all-time in program history. 
 
Riley Shope rounded out our top 3 today by running a collegiate PB and the second fastest time of her life. She is now #7 all-time in program history for 5K (XC). Paris continues to solidify herself as our #4 and she also managed to run a collegiate PB today. Kylie rounded out our top five and was followed closely by Emma. We will rely heavily on these two young ladies two weeks from now at our Conference Championship. In what was probably the performance of the day for us, Christiana Gidney ran a lifetime PB in her first race of the season. Christiana has had a long road back after dealing with two stress injuries in less than 6 months. It's been a long and frustrating road, but she's never complained. She's only been training for a couple of months and is really just getting back into things without much of a base. So the fact that she was able to run a lifetime PB today on what could be considered a "home course" for her was awesome to see. I'm so proud of her and how she's battled through adversity. I hope that today makes it all worth it for her. 
 
Beka is another girl who's just now getting back into things, and today was her first race of the season as well. She had a phenomenal summer of training and was definitely in a position to be a top five runner for us this season. Unfortunately she started experiencing some shin pain and we had to back things off for a few weeks. However, her shins seem to be doing well now, so we've been trying to gradually increase her training over the past few weeks. I know that she didn't run as well today as she wanted to, but the fact that she's healthy and that she was able to race today was a win. She's one of the hardest workers on the team and she's got a lot of potential. Zoie has also been dealing with some shin issues which has limited her training over the past few weeks. But she's continuing to give it her all. I'm proud of how she's continuing to battle despite a tough situation. I'm continuing to see signs of improvement with Kaylee and Kacey. Over the past month or so, I've seen a shift in Kaylee's mentality. I think she's someone that can see a lot of improvement in the near future. Kacey is another girl that has been dealing with some health issues, but we think we've got some answers and I'm excited to see where she can go from here. She's put a lot of miles in over the summer and so far this season. I'm proud of her and all of the hard work that she's put in. 
 
Last week's race was a rough one for the men. Fortunately we only had to wait six days to be able to race again. Today was all about "bouncing back" and our men's team did just that. It's not easy to come off a disappointing performance, but they did, and they looked SO much better today. Hayden led us once again as our top runner and had the second best 8K performance of his career. He's improved every race this season. If we can keep him healthy over the next two weeks, he can definitely be one of those guys in the top pack at our Conference Championship. 
 
Mason had a great "bounce back" race. He's been dealing with some back issues, so the fact that he was able to race with relatively low pain was a win in itself. The fact that he ran as well as he did made it even better. Thomas also bounced back from a tough race last week. I saw him flip a switch in the middle of today's race. After that, he worked his way up the rest of the race and ended up running as our #3. Matthew really went for it today. He went out super hard and though he faded a little bit, he still managed to hang on, run a good race, and finish as our #4. He's a tough young man. It's not easy to run a race the way that he did today, but he showed a lot of determination and grit. That's two races in a row that he's run top five for us. Joel had a similar race to Thomas. 
 
He was a little further back a couple of miles in, but really flipped a switch and worked WAY up throughout the remainder of the race. It was exciting to see him get into that competitive mode and work up throughout the race the way that he did. Solomon probably had the race of the day for the men's team. This was by far the best race that I've seen him run. He looked strong the entire time and ended up with a lifetime PB and almost broke into our top five. I was really proud of how Solomon raced today. Cohen had a decent race today. He was one of the few guys that had a good race last week, so it wasn't so much of a bounce back race for him as it was to pick up where he left off. Ryland showed a lot of toughness today. He's been battling some pretty significant back pain for a while now, but he continues to show up everyday ready to grind. He's a hard worker and tough young man. 
 
Chas continues to be a "gamer" for us. He's not one that's necessarily going to blow you away with his workouts. But when it comes to races he's always in the mix. And because of that he pushes and challenges his teammates around him, which ultimately makes us better as a team. We had a win today with Nick in that he finished the race. Last week's race was a tough one for him and he's been battling some sickness since then. But he went out, gave it a good effort, and finished. Hopefully he can get healthy over the next couple of weeks and be ready for a good performance at Conference. Wrapping up our men's team, David ran his fourth consecutive PB. He has been working hard and his progression each race is an indication of his improvement. We will see if he can get another PB in two weeks on a slightly more difficult course. 

Overall, I'm very pleased with how we did today. The last regular season race going into our Conference Championship is important. If you perform poorly, you have that lingering for the two weeks leading up to the biggest race of the season. But if you perform well, you can use that as confidence and momentum. I think we can definitely use today's race as positive momentum over the next couple of weeks as we prepare for Conference. The work has been done. The focus is now on getting/staying healthy and going into Conference feeling the best that we possibly can. As always, I'm proud of this team and I'm eager to see how we do in two weeks at our Conference Championship."
 
Next Up 
The Crusaders run in the Conference Carolinas Championship on October 21^st.