By: Donald Menke ~Staff Writer~

Both Xavier men’s and women’s cross country teams competed at the National Catholic Invitational meet this past Friday, with the men’s team placing eighth and finishing four points behind DePaul. The women’s team placed sixth, finishing 11 points behind Loyola. St. Louis University won the men’s race, while Notre Dame won the women’s.

The women’s team finished with five runners in the top 50 of the 5K, as redshirt sophomore Gina Genco led the way with an 11th place finish and a time of 18:11. Next was junior Allison Sinning with a time of 18:40, finishing 25th. Sinning was followed by redshirt junior Meghan Vogel at 18:55, junior Alondra Hoyos at 18:56 and senior Rachel Sollman at 19:16. Vogel, Hoyos and Sollman finished 34th, 35th and 50th respectively.

On the men’s side, four runners placed in the top 50 of the 8k. Leading the men’s team was sophomore Charles Korodi, who finished with a time of 26:23 and captured 27th place. The next best finisher for the men’s team was sophomore Grayson Jenkins, who finished 31st and completed the race in 26:26. Jenkins was followed by senior Aaron Peterson, who finished 38th with a time of 26:47, senior Grant Parrelli in 44th at 26:59 and sophomore Matt Mekaelian in 59th at 27:33 to round out the top five Xavier men’s runners.

The next meet for Xavier is the All-Ohio Invitational at Cedarville University, which takes place on Sept. 30.