HUNTSVILLE, Ala.—Junior Noah Hufnagel (Santa Claus, Indiana) and freshman Silas Winders (Mansfield, Tennessee) posted top-20 finishes Saturday morning to lead No. 10 University of Southern Indiana Men’s Cross Country to a fourth-place finish out of 33 teams at the UAH Chargers Invitational.
Hufnagel finished eighth out of 340 competitors with an eight-kilometer time of 24 minutes, 7.45 seconds. Winders finished 13th with a time of 24:13.82.
As a team, the Screaming Eagles finished with 121 points, just two points behind third-place and No. 12-ranked University of Alabama-Huntsville. Lee University, ranked No. 7, nationally, was second with 107 points, while No. 11 Pittsburg State University won the meet with 90 points. No. 14 Missouri Southern State University rounded out the top five teams with 171 points.
Junior Titus Winders (Mansfield, Tennessee) and sophomore Mitchell Hopf (Santa Claus, Indiana) were 24th and 29th, respectively, to aid the Eagles’ efforts, while sophomore Braden Nicholson (Claremont, Illinois) rounded out the USI’s top five with a 48th-place finish.
USI’s top seven was rounded out by freshman Dylan Bland (Holland, Indiana) and junior Cameron Cox (Huntsville, Alabama), who finished 107th and 114th, respectively. Cox was competing in his hometown for the first time in his collegiate career.
The Eagles return to action October 23 when they compete at the Great Lakes Valley Conference Championships. USI is looking to recapture the GLVC title after failing to win the conference championship for the first time in 16 years in 2020.
