ROCK HILL, S.C. – Justin Gianni, Will Schefer and Matt Richardson finished seventh, eighth and ninth, respectively, at the Asics Winthrop Invitational to lead the Elon men's cross country squad to a second-place finish, just two points behind Southern Conference foe Davidson.

 

Elon finished ahead of SoCon opponents Western Carolina and Wofford along with Winthrop and Presbyterian. 

 

"The men ran significantly better as a team than a week ago," said head coach Christine Engel. "We had a great race. It was tough to lose by two points to a very good Davidson team, but I am please with our performance." 

 

Gianni posted a personal-best time of 25:47.85, which ranks as the sixth-best time in the Elon record book. Shefer ran a time of 25:53.59, landing him eighth in Elon's top-10 times while Richardson's mark of 26:00.77 is good for the 10th-best time at Elon.

 

Connor Mercurio placed 12th with a time of 26:21.51 while Clay Sankey posted a time of 26:42.93 to finish 20th and round out Elon's top-five finishers.

 

Ranley Gousse finished 21st with a time of 26:45.80 while Taylor Zorski ran a time of 27:20.62 for a 31st-place finish. Andrew Hawkey and Lucas Walters finished 34th and 35th with times of 27:31.76 and 27:32.84.  David Wells placed 44th with a time of 28:05.27 while Sean Martyn posted a time of 28:14.20 to place 47th and Conor O'Brien placed 53rd with a time of 28:40.20.

 

Elon returns to action on Oct. 3 at the Louisville Classic in Louisville, Kentucky.