Cameron Levins Finishes First as Men Place Ninth, Women Seventh Among National Field

NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. - Sept. 20 - Southern Utah cross country recorded two top-ten individual finishes as the men's team finished ninth and the women seventh of 25 teams in a national field at the Iona Meet of Champions on Saturday morning.

"This was a good meet for us," head coach Eric Houle said of the meet. "We'll take a lot of positive things from this as we were able to run with some of the best in the nation. When we get the rest of the team up with the pack, we'll be a lot better."

Sophomore Cameron Levins paced the Thunderbirds with a first-place finish on the men's side, beating all-americans from Iona, Michigan and Boston College with a near course-record time of 24:24.

Freshmen Nate Jewkes and Nigel Sharp were the next finishers for the T-Birds, crossing the line in 35th and 46th place, respectively, with times of 25:29 and 25:41. Dave Sheeran (78th, 26:22) and Graham Cheever (85th, 26:27) rounded out the scoring for Southern Utah as the T-Brids finished with a total of 217. SUU was just out of a top-five finish as Navy (4th, 197), Lehigh (5th, 205), Marist (6th, 210), Kentucky (7th, 211) and Penn (8th, 214) narrowly preceded the Thunderbirds.

On the women's side, freshman Jamie Smith finished 10th with a time of 22:24, only five-tenths of a second outside of an 8th-place finish. Another freshman, Kirsten Sly made up the front side of the Southern Utah pack, finishing 38th (23:12) and was followed by sophomores Diana Medina (48th, 23:25) and Lynzee Baxter (51, 23:25).

Sophomore Steffi Minson fell away from the group and capped the T-Birds total at 189 after finishing 73rd (23:54), making the top-five finishers all underclassmen.

Penn State ultimately won the meet on the women's side, with Michigan taking the team title on the men's side.

The finish for both the men and women should bode well on the national scene as the Thunderbirds posted wins over regionally-ranked Providence and Stony Brook.

Southern Utah will be back on the course when the Thunderbirds travel to South Bend, Indiana to take part in the Notre Dame Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 4.

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Players Mentioned

Lynzee Baxter: 5' 6"; Sophomore

Steffi Minson: 5' 8"; Sophomore

Jamie Smith: 5' 4"; Freshman

Graham Cheever: 6' 2"; Sophomore

Cameron Levins: 5' 11"; Sophomore

Nigel Sharp: 5' 8"; Freshman

Players Mentioned

Lynzee Baxter
: 5' 6"; Sophomore

Steffi Minson
: 5' 8"; Sophomore

Jamie Smith
: 5' 4"; Freshman

Graham Cheever
: 6' 2"; Sophomore

Cameron Levins
: 5' 11"; Sophomore

Nigel Sharp
: 5' 8"; Freshman