Sept. 18, 2010
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- The Auburn men's and women's cross country teams finished in fourth-place at the Crimson Classic Saturday. Senior Holly Knight won the individual crown in the women's 5K and senior Ben Cheruiyot finished third in the men's 8K.
"It was a very good day for both teams," head coach Mark Carroll said. "Fourth-place finishes for both in very tough competition on a very hot day is very good."
Texas A&M finished first in the women's race, followed by Alabama and Samford in second and third. In the men's race, Alabama took first-place, while Ole Miss and Texas A&M finished in second- and third-place respectively.
Knight opened her final season with the Tigers, running a 16 minute, 59.30 second 5K to take the win.
"It was a great win for Holly," Carroll said. "She opened her season with a strong win and a very fast time today. Hopefully she builds from here and gets back to where she was when she was competing at NCAAs."
Senior Cheruiyot also began his senior campaign with a top finish, running the 8K in 23:55.00 to finish third.
"The men's race was a very very fast," Carroll added. "The opening group took the race out very fast and Ben went right with it, and had a very good opening race of the season."
Also in the 5K Stephanie Barnes, Elizabeth Briasco and Allison Smith finished in the Top 30 in a field of 140. Barnes ran 17:30.00 to finish fifth, while Briasco finished 25th in 18:29.90 and Smith finished 30th in 18:36.00.
"Stephanie had a great race today," Carroll said. "She ran really well for us, and Elizabeth had a great finish for it to be her freshman year. All if the ladies did very well and were about as good as we could expect."
Freshman Colin Barker had a tenth-place 25:08.80 in his Auburn debut.
"Colin ran a great race today," Carroll said. "He opened his season with a great finish in s tough fast race."
Jeffrey Sanders ran 25:23.90 to finish 15th and Joby Peake finished 28th in 28:51.50.
The Tigers travel to Memphis for the Brooks Memphis Twilight Cross Country Classic on Sept. 25.