Blue Raiders show improvement at Greater Louisville Classic

Men's Results-Blue (HTML) | Women's Results-Blue (HTML) | Complete Results

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - After an open-weekend, Middle Tennessee's cross country squads continued their 2012 campaign at the Greater Louisville Classic on Saturday. Over 115 schools competed in three races at E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park, as the Blue Raider men finished fifth and the women finished 23rd in the Blue Races.

After a less than stellar performance two weeks ago at the Commodore Classic, every Blue Raider men's runner improved on their 8,000 meter times. Robinson Simatei navigated the men's 8K race in 25:07.51 to finish sixth, but was the only Blue Raider to finish in the top 40. Silas Taiget (25:47.79) finished 44th, cutting nearly one minute off his last performance.

Alden Dixon's freshman campaign featured another successful showing, coming in 57th with a time of 25:56.86.

The final two MT scorers were Keith Davis (26:17.79) and Daniel Ketter (26:31.47), finishing 86th and 117th.

Lyle Haywood and Jamarious Jones were MT's sixth and seventh finishers, running times of 26:37.43 and 28:47.70, respectively.

The men's team race was won by Eastern Kentucky while JJ Weber of Northern Kentucky took the individual crown with a time of 24:43.30.

While MT continued to run without top-runner Lucy Kapkiai, true freshman Julia Kitevski cruised through the 5,000 meter course in 18:40.97 to place 36th, leading MT for the second consecutive race.

Autumn Gipson was close behind, finishing 42nd with a time of 18:45.83. The next two Blue Raider finishers were Tressanique Hampton (19:50.78) in 170th and Rachel Islam (20:00.59) in 182nd.

Stephanie Smith (213th) scored MT's final points with a time of 20:12.13, while Hannah Northam steered through the route in 21:50.09.

West Virginia dominated the women's race, scoring just 43 points with all runners across in the top-12.

Sharon Ronoh of Lindsey Wilson claimed the individual title in 17:27.36.

The Blue Raiders will close out their regular seasons on Oct. 13 at the Front Runner Invitational in Chattanooga, Tenn. 

Follow the Blue Raiders on Twitter @MTAthletics for continued updates.