The men’s and women’s cross country teams performed strongly in a tough field filled with Division I opponents at the Greater Louisville Classic on Saturday. The men’s team finished 17th out of 38 squads while the women’s team took ninth.

Against mostly Division I squads, junior Tayrn Surtees was able to lead the women with a time of 18:04:28, and sophomore Michael Burnstein led the men with a time of 25:06:99. Surtees finished 21st and Burnstein finished 45th.

Running against Division I teams like University of Kentucky and Western Kentucky University, two runners on the women’s team were able to break the 20-minute barrier: juniors Jess Londeree (18:44:48) and Sangeeta Hardy (18:55:91).

Freshman runner David Hamm ran for 25:47:62, finishing second among the Washington University runners. Sophomore Malik Nabulsi, who beat his time from last week’s meet by over a minute, said, “I think we left this meet a much better team because we took risks during the race and learned from them.”

Senior Molly Schlamb, the second finisher for the Red and Green, finished 10 seconds behind Surtees. “The race was awesome with perfect weather, a fast course and great competition,” Schlamb said. This is the second meet in a row in which Schlamb finished second for the Bears. Schlamb beat her time from last week’s meet by just under a minute.

The teams continue to have their eyes set on the regional meet in November. The teams did well to continue their drive to qualify, which senior Zach Griffen attributes to the fact that Saturday’s meet was the best meet the teams will run all year. “This meet was all about getting our feet wet,” Griffen said. “NCAA regionals and nationals will be similar to yesterday.”

If Wash. U. runners continue running like they have been, they will be able to run at regionals and continue their trek to qualifying for nationals. The team is slowly working its way up and aiming to field an experienced squad.

“Come regionals we are going to have a strong seven [runners] toe the line, and we will all feel the excitement,” Nabulsi said.