GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. --- Four of University of St. Francis' five runners that scored in Saturday's NAIA Great Lakes Challenge Cross Country Invitational posted season-best times in leading the Saints to a Top 10 finish at the 21-team meet.  USF's 249 points placed it ninth overall.

 

Included in the Saint mix was freshman Mike Topp (St. Mary Cathedral H.S./Gaylord, MI), who scored for the first time on the collegiate level.  Topp, a Michigan native, boasted a 39-second improvement to his previous-best mark placing fifth on the team and 92nd overall with his first sub-28-minute time.  He ran the 8K course at Riverside Park in 27:39.

Freshman Sean Smith (Winnebago H.S./Winnebago, IL), USF's top runner all season, also turned in his best time with a 26:09 (22nd overall), a 20-second improvement from the National Catholic invitational just over one month ago.

Junior Michael McElyea (Joliet Junior College/Illiopolis, IL) was next up placing 52nd overall with a time of 26:52, or five seconds better than his personal best for the year.

Junior Ian McDowell (Lansing Community College, MI/Lansing, MI) also continued his improvement with each passing week by earning a time of 26:54 and a 53rd-place finish, one notch behind McElyea.  McDowell took another 17 seconds off his time from two weeks ago in posting his best mark at USF.

Junior Adam Yost (Sparta H.S./Sparta, MI) rounded out USF's scoring contingent.  He just missed finishing in the 26-minute range along with three of his teammates at 27:03 to place 61st overall and fourth on the club.

Aquinas College (Mich.) nudged out Shawnee State University (Ohio) for the team title with its 57 points, or one less than the Bears.  Cedarville University (Ohio) was third with 121 points.

Cornerstone University's (Mich.) Zach Ripley was the top individual performer at 25:07.  A total of 248 runners completed the course.

USF now gears itself up for the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships, which it will host on Nov. 7 at Dellwood Park in Lockport, Ill.  Race time is 11:15 a.m.