The Purple Aces finished sixth and 11th overall
EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Sophomore runner Rafael Rodriguez (Sergovia, Spain) cracked the Top 5 program times for the UE cross country teams at the Angel Mounds Invitational on Friday morning.
In the final regular season meet of the year, Rodriguez earned the fourth-best time in program history for a men’s 8K race at 24:43 for a sixth-place overall finish. Rodriguez’s time helped propel the Purple Aces men’s team to sixth place out of 16 teams improving four sports from 2023. On the women’s team sophomore Avery Stephens (Newburg, Ind. / Castle HS) led the team with a personal best of 23:25.4 in the women’s 6K for an 11th-place finish out of 16 teams.
“The credit today belongs to these two teams who have stuck together through so many changes and endured many trials and errors,” said Head Coach Dylan Anderson following the meet. “A huge shout-out goes to seniors Adam Oulgout and Hannah Bryan for writing an incredible final chapter at Angel Mounds.
“We have driven all of our themes in practice towards an appreciation of running and appreciating each other as a team. It’s easy to lose sight of ourselves in the pursuit of success, but we’ve done a great job of staying grounded and seeing the big picture. We are officially in the postseason now and I’m excited to see what this team has left in the tank!”
In the day’s first race, five runners from UE’s men’s team finished in the top 40 out of over 200 attached runners. Behind Rodriguez was senior Adam Oulgout (St. Paul, Minn. / Central HS) with an 8K personal best time of 25:16.7 for 25th. Also in the Top 30 for Evansville was sophomore Woody Burrell (Cedarburg, Wis. / Cedarburg HS) with a time of 25:22.8 at 30th. Right behind Burrell was sophomore Cedrik Flipo (Beloeil, Quebec) at 32nd with a time of 25:25.4.
The Aces’ other scoring times on the men’s side came from sophomore Samuel Lea (Worchester, England), who ran 25:37.9, sophomore Tommaso Losma (Lombardia, Italy), who ran 25:55.3, and Kadin McAllister (Lilburn, Ga. / Parkview HS), who ran 26:53.1. Overall, the UE men had 13 runners on Friday, and 10 of those runners set personal bests.
During the women’s 6K Stephens led Evansville followed by sophomore Kyndall Anthis (Pakota, Ind. / Princeton Community HS) with a time of 24:08. Also scoring for the Aces on the women’s side was senior Hannah Bryan (Evansville, Ind. / Reitz HS) with a personal best of 24:55.9, freshman Lauren Bradley (Russiaville, Ind. / Western HS ) with a PR of 25:05.4, sophomore Chase Hayes (Noblesville, Ind. / Western HS) with a time of 25:40.8, freshman Skyler Dickenson (Brownsburg, Ind. / Brownsburg HS) with a PR of 26:15.4 and freshman Megan Allgeier (Batesville, Ind. / Batesville HS) with a time of 26:37.1. The UE women had eight runners on Friday with five new personal bests.
Evansville now heads into postseason meets with the MVC Championship in two weeks on November 1st. The Aces will travel to Cedar Falls, Iowa to compete against the rest of the conference before the NCAA Great Lakes Regional.
