In the first year of their existence, Salt Lake Community College’s cross-country teams finished third in the women’s race and eighth in the men’s race at the National Junior College Cross Country Championships Saturday in Tallahassee, Florida.
The Bruin women placed five runners — all freshmen — in the top 30 in a field of 183 runners.
Grace Tipton was 13th, Molly Jensen 18th, Zaylie Paras 19th, Morgan Mehrley 22nd and Kennedy Swain 33rd.
The men’s team — also composed entirely of freshmen — was led by Brad Minor with a 33rd place finish, followed by Mohamed Zairi in 45th, Wyatt Wingard in 47th, Talon Rodriguez in 48th and Aleksandr Krikov in 49th.
The team was built from scratch by Isaac Wood, a former administrator/coach in the BYU program who was hired last spring to start the school’s first cross-country program.