FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- Freshman William Kile paced a limited John Brown University men's cross country lineup Saturday morning (Oct. 3), leading the Golden Eagles to an 18th-place finish among 22 teams in the Prairie Fire Pepper 8K at the Chile Pepper Festival at Agri Park.
Kile finished 73rd overall in 28:48 in his first collegiate 8K. Fellow freshmen Sam Cunningham and Yeseong An followed within 25 seconds, with Cunningham taking 86th in 29:08 and An crossing 89th in 29:13.
Sophomore Luke Preedy finished 115th in 30:39, trimming 2:15 from his previous collegiate 8K best of 32:54. Freshman Truett Joiner rounded out the scoring five in 152nd at 33:44, while junior Gabriel Pelkey was unable to finish.
John Brown scored 458 points with a team time of 2:31:34. Missouri Baptist won the Prairie Fire Pepper with 87 points and a team time of 2:14:14.
As with the women's race, JBU used the weekend as part of a larger training plan. The Golden Eagles held its top 11 men out of competition during the final weekend of the current training block.
"I'm proud of our athletes for putting together a strong effort today," program director Peter Cunningham said. "With many of our top runners resting on both the men's and women's sides, this group executed a lot of things really well.
"It was fun to see Liam lead the gentlemen. He learned a lot from the experience and competed really well."
The 8K was contested in cloudy conditions with temperatures around 73 degrees on the Chile Pepper course.
The Blue and Gold return home Saturday (Oct. 10) for the Golden Eagle Invitational at Pollard's Field in Siloam Springs.
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