London, ON – The STFX cross country program sent a squad of five male and six female runners to compete at the 48^th annual Vigars & Salter Western Invitational on Saturday, hosted by Western University at the Thames Valley Golf Course in London, Ont.

The X-Women team had a great showing, coming in third place overall amongst 15 teams. They had 116 points, next to meet winners UBC with 17 and Western with 75.

Eileen Benoit was the top X runner, posting a top 10 finish in ninth place with a time of 30:20 in the 8km event. The race featured a total of 132 runners.

Allie Sandluck came 13^th with a 30:32 showing, and Mairin Canning cracked the top 20 finishing in 20^th position at 31:12.

Caden Lee (31:55), Eve Carreau (31:57) and Taylor Rassmussen (32:30) rounded out the X-Women team with placings in 36^th, 38^th and 53^rd positions, respectively.

In the men's 8km race, the STFX X-Men came in fifth place out of 17 teams. Queen's won with 54 points, followed by UBC (57), Guelph (69), UNB (144) and STFX.

Jack O'Connell (26:16) and Joel Gallant (26:53) placed in the top 30 runners amongst the field of 147, coming in 22^nd and 26^th spots.

Luc Gallant was 33^rd overall with a time of 26:36 and Griffin Gamble (26:54) and Liam Patterson (27:11) came 39^th and 53^rd.

The races were a good primer for the U SPORTS Championship which will be held on the same course on November 11^th.

The STFX squads will be back in action on Saturday, October 7^th when they compete at the UNB Invitational in Fredericton.

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Recap courtesy Krista McKenna, STFX Athletics