September 8, 2007

HATTIESBURG -- For the second consecutive week to open the fall cross country season, the Millsaps men's team has looked solid behind senior leader Sam Gay, finishing third in the Southern Mississippi Cross Country Invitational on Friday for another Top 3 finish.

In a 12-team event with 79 runners and seven teams in the state of Mississippi, Millsaps finished first out of the state teams, topping Jackson State, Alcorn State, Mississippi College, Belhaven, Mississippi Valley State and Tougaloo College.

In the men's 4 mile run, Gay finished in 22:34.46, just 1:19 behind unattached runner Vincent Tanui and 10 seconds behind second place finisher Austin Enriquez of West Alabama who finished at 22:24.00.

Freshman Jack Boettcher backed up a fifth place finish in Clinton with another strong run on Saturday, finishing 15th with a time of 24:00.24 while Lloyd Gray (21st), Taylor Weglicki (27th), Evan Parker (31st) and Stephen Butler (51st) all crossed the tape under 28 minutes.

West Alabama won the race overall with a total time of 1:57:49.13 with Xavier University finishing second at 1:59:34.08 and Millsaps finishing third at 2:02:17.45.

The final rankings included Jackson State University (4th), Alcorn State University (5th), Spring Hill College (6th), Mississippi College (7th), Belhaven College (8th), Mobile (9th), Mississippi Valley State (10th), Loyola University-New Orleans (11th) and Tougaloo (12th).