Competing in its second spring meet of the 2010 season, the University of Dayton men’s cross country team fielded runners in three separate events and received eight personal best performances on Saturday afternoon at the University of Cincinnati’s Early Bird Relays.
Home to a unique scoring system, the Early Bird Relays differs from many events. Each team must have the best combined time or mark from two of its own athletes to earn first-place points. The next team with the best combined time or mark would then earn second-place points and so on.
The Flyers were able to put up the best “relay” score in both the 5K and the 3,000-meter steeplechase events, as they scored 28 team points overall at the meet.
Juniors Chris and Matt Lemon teamed up to win the 5K for the Flyers, although they scored third and fourth-place finishes, respectively. Combined, the twins had the top time of any competing school. Separately, Chris finished third overall in 14:37.97 and Matt trailed him by just seven seconds, finishing fourth in 14:44.47.
Dayton also got personal best times from five others in the 5K events. Greg Roeth (sixth, 14:57.6), Kyle Lowry (10th, 15:20.6), Stephen Mackell (21st, 15:56.13), Derek Bornhorst (23rd, 16:07.11) and Derek Bornhorst (25th, 16:11.45) all recorded career best times on Saturday.
The UD tandem of Jeremy Schiele and Nate Addessi also claimed the title in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. Schiele, a freshman, won the event in a time of 9:50.0, while classmate Addessi came in just behind in second-place (9:55.8).
The Lemon brothers also teamed up to claim second-place in the men’s 1,500-meter race. Matt finished second overall with his personal record time of 4:00.34, and Chris followed in fifth position (4:01.30) to earn four points for the Flyers.
UD will continue its spring running season next weekend at the Cedarville University Invitational, which will be an all-day meet beginning at 11:00 a.m. EST. Stay tuned to DaytonFlyers.com for complete results and a recap of all the action following the event’s conclusion.
