Eagles XC Competes at Royals Challenge in Charlotte, NC

Charlotte, NC - The Eagles Men's and Women's Cross Country Teams competed in the Royals Challenge Invitational meet on Friday afternoon. The Men's Team competed in the 8K Gold Division and the Women's Team Competed in the Blue 5K division.

The meet had some of the best XC teams on the East Coast from NCAA Division I, II, III, and the NAIA. It was loaded with many talented runners and competitive cross-country programs.

Brooke Simon was the top finisher for the Women's Team just as she has been for all the meets so far. Simon had a really impressive showing finishing in the 13th position overall out of 200 total runners. Her time in this 5k was 19:58.3, which was top-notch running. The team did not have a finish position in the team standings because the women did not have enough runners competing. 

On the men's side, they were competing at a very tough level with NCAA Division I, II, and III opponents. Overall, the Eagles would finish in the 17th position which is a little lower than they have placed in other meets, however, the level that they were competing in says a lot about the team and the quality runners Reinhardt has. 

Salvador Castillo was the top finisher for the Men's Team coming in 78th overall out of 258 runners. The next best was Tom Vincent with a time of 26:37 and Braden Ray with a time of 26:42. After Vincent & Ray, It was Arat Joanico and Logan Ray who both finished with the times of 27:17 and 27:21.

Competing against higher-level programs with top runners can only help make things get better for Reinhardt's XC Program. Next up for the Eagles will be the NAIA Appalachian Challenge in Knoxville, TN. This will be the final meet of the season before the teams head to the AAC Tournament and try to compete for a spot.