Utah Valley senior Shevaun Ames and freshman Anthony Ocegueda each picked up individual victories, as UVU men's and women's cross-country swept the men's and women's individual wins for the second-straight meet Saturday morning at the Southern Utah Color Country Invitational.
Ames, who notched her first win of her senior campaign in the 4K with a time of 14:28.70, also guided the Wolverine women to victory for the second-consecutive race. The UVU senior's first-place finish led a trio of Wolverines claiming the top-three finishes and seven UVU runners overall finishing among the top-10 women's finishers.
"Shevaun had a great race," said UVU head coach Scott Houle. "She's been having great performances all year long, but finally broke through as the No. 1 runner for us and had (a) phenomenal race on this course. This was a great result and good test for us without our top runner and the girls did an overall good job."
In the men's 6K, Ocegueda earned his first career win after running a time of 18:25.50, while giving the UVU men's squad an individual win for the fourth-straight race to remain unbeaten in the individual results on the year.
"Anthony ran really well today. I knew he was going to do great because he talked about running more controlled and free this time around. He took some shots and overall did a good job," Houle said.
Freshmen Hannah Branch (14:34.80) and Sammy Hollingsworth (14:38.10) crossed the finish line within 10 seconds of their senior teammate Ames in second and third place, respectively, to add their best career finishes for Utah Valley. In addition, senior Savannah Berry placed seventh with a time of 14.47.60, and freshman Miah Weaver (14:53.20) took ninth to top off UVU's scoring on the day.
Meanwhile, Utah Valley sophomore Paityn Chynoweth clocked a time of 15:02.50 to place 10th and help the Wolverines secure seven of the top-10 spots in back-to-back meets. Sophomore Sam Hedquist's (15:04.80) 11th-place finish rounded out a list of eight of the top-11 women's finishers.
UVU's usual No. 2-runner Kevin Lynch joined Ocegueda in the top 10 of the men's 6K, finishing ninth with a time of 19:04.80 to round out the duo of top-10 Wolverine finishers. Senior Logan Petty (19:15.10) in 13th place, sophomore Adrian Jones (19:22.30) in 16th place and junior Brandon Edmondson (19:42.10) in 21st place finished as the UVU men's team final scorers on the day.
The Wolverine women tallied 20 points on the day to top Idaho State in second with 59 points, College of Idaho in third with 69 points and Dixie State in fourth place with 86 points.
On the men's side, Utah Valley placed third (57 points) behind No. 6 in the nation Southern Utah in first with 22 points and Idaho State with 48 points. UVU edged College of Idaho (110 points) in fourth and Dixie State in fifth (139 points).
The Wolverines' pair of top-three finishes on the day came in spite of running without their top men's and women's runners, as seniors Tyson Lambert and McKayla Walker rested in preparation for the team's final regular season meet.
"This race was also a great learning experience for our men running without our best runner there. Kevin raced really well, Logan Petty is coming back into form and running solid for us and Adrian continues to get better with each race. Also, Brandon is starting to get into shape so things are looking pretty good for us heading into our next meet," said Houle.
Utah Valley will close out the regular season next weekend when it makes a trip to Santa Clara, California, for the Santa Clara Bronco Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 14.