Ruiz and Correia Leads Racers to Finish Third at Season Opener

Friday, September 2

Nashville, Tenn.

Murray State

Belmont

Photo by: Adit Wratsangka - Murray State Athletics

Ruiz and Correia Leads Racers to Finish Third at Season Opener

9/2/2022 4:42:00 PM | Men's Cross Country

Results

Racer men's cross country finished third overall at Belmont Opener

The Murray State men's cross country team placed third with a total score of 73 at Belmont Opener 5,000m race in Nashville, Tennessee.

Vicente Correia led the pace of the Racers through most of the Race before Jorge Ruiz came back in the final mile to place sixth overall with a time of 15 minutes 39.264 seconds. Correia finished a split-second behind in seventh with a time of 15 minutes 39.668 seconds.

"Vicente and Jorge has been working really well in practice," cross country coach, Jordan Johnston, said. "Vicente by far has the most even (time) splits."

Third for the Racers was Benjamin Hall who placed 18th with a time of 16 minutes 15.788 seconds. Hall set his own pace throughout the Race.

Freshman Joey Santoro was the fourth finisher for the Racers. Finishing 22nd overall with a time of 16 minutes and 20.374 seconds, Johnston considers him the standout performer of the meet for marking a time close to his personal best in the season opener.

Daniel Schalk (16:39.475), Ryan Dent (16:40.296) and Jarod Willis (16:47.362) placed 23rd, 24th and 25th, respectively, to round up the scoring group.

"It's nice to see two freshmen, Joey and Dan Schalk, finish in the Racers top five so early in the career. I think as they gain confidence we are going to see a lot more out of them in the next four years," Johnston said.

Schalk was setting the pace with team captain, Willis, throughout the race with only a two-second margin between each other per mile.

Johnston's goal for the opener was to for the runners to feel like they can run more after the race, and she said most of the runners will be able to hold the pace for the upcoming 8,000m races.

The Belmont Opener was at Percy Warner Park where five other teams from the area came together. Among those teams were Vanderbilt, Austin Peay and fellow MVC commpetitor and hosts, Belmont.

The Racers will race at the Golden Eagle Invite at Tennesse Tech, Sept. 16.