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SOUTHERN UTAH

CROSS COUNTRY: The Thunderbirds recorded both individual and team first-place finishes in front of a home crowd as Cameron Levins and Sharla Manuele paced the Thunderbirds to first-place team finishes at the Color Country Invitational on Saturday morning. Both ran school records at the Cedar Ridge course as it has been redesigned in preparation for the 2009 Summit League Cross Country Championships on Oct. 31.

The Thunderbirds recorded four top-ten finishes on the women's side as Manuele cross the line in first with a time of 21:55. She was followed by Diana Medina in third, (22:22), Sylvia Bedford in sixth (23:00) and Madalyn Olpin in eighth (23:09). Southern Utah's final scoring runner, Kirsten Sly finished just sixth-tenths of a second out of tenth place, finishing 11th with a time of 23:16.60.

The women totaled 29 points, finishing ahead of Utah Valley (37) and avenging an earlier defeat to Idaho State this season as the Bengals finished third with 65 points.

The men were even stronger as three of the top four runners were each Thunderbirds, led by Levins with a time of 25:22. Kevin Sandall raced to a third-place finish (25:47) and was followed closely by freshman Hayden Hawks who finished fourth with a time of 25:49. Dallas Eborn recorded a top-ten finish with a tenth-place time of 26:18, but the pace fell off from there as SUU's next scored runner, Skylar Riggs came in as the 21st runner (15th scored) with a time of 26:50.

The top three finishers for the Thunderbirds powered the men to victory as the team totaled 30 points, followed by Utah Valley with 39 and Idaho State with 57.

Southern Utah will be back among nationally-ranked competition next weekend when the men and women travel to Terre Haute, Ind. to participate in the NCAA Pre-Nationals meet, hosted by Indiana State University. The race is the same course that will be used for the NCAA National Championships in late November.