CLINTON, Pa. – The St. Bonaventure cross country teams battled unforgiving course conditions Friday morning at the Colonial Invitational, paced by two top finishes by graduate student Aiden Scattergood and sophomore Brayden Frair.

As a team, the Bonnies placed fifth out of 10 teams. Carnegie Mellon took the team trophy at 38 points while Youngstown State was second (64 points), host Robert Morris third (72) and Davis & Elkins fourth at 120 points while Bona's registered 123 team points to beat out sixth-place Wright State by 12 tallies.

An already challenging Youthtown Cross Country Course featuring the rolling hills terrain outside Pittsburgh was left drenched by three inches of rain on Wednesday and another downpour Thursday night. This week's rains reduced the course to a quagmire with many runners posting times two minutes or more off their personal bests as they sank through the mud.

Scattergood, less than a week removed from his Little Three Championship victory, was at the front of the field again as he finished fourth in the pack of over 140 competitors. Scattergood timed in with an 8K run of 26:47.35, behind the winning time of 26:18.16 of Patrick Burgos from Youngstown State along with the Carnegie Mellon duo of Ollie Moss (26:35.94) and Nicolo Fasanelli (26:43.53).

Frair gave the Bonnies another top finisher as he placed 16^th (27:21.16) while junior Nathan Sikorski ran 32^nd (27:56.60).

The rest of Bona's top five included senior William McCarthy (28:04.66) and sophomore Jack Handman (28:06.98).

QUOTES FROM HEAD COACH BOB MACFARLANE
"Today's conditions at the Colonial Invitational were some of the toughest our men and women have ever raced in. The course was extremely muddy and sloppy, making it very difficult to get any kind of traction. Looking across the results, the men were generally around two minutes slower than their previous races, while the women were about a minute to a minute and a half slower. This was one of those days when the clock simply didn't tell the whole story.

"Our theme this year has focused on the characteristics that help us persevere through difficult situations, and today was all about competitive courage. When the course and conditions are working against you, you have to make the decision to keep competing, regardless of what the clock says.I thought our runners handled that challenge extremely well. They stayed tough, kept competing, and showed the competitive courage we've been talking about all season. On one of the hardest courses and in some of the toughest conditions we've faced, I was very proud of the way our men and women responded."

UP NEXT
St. Bonaventure is off next weekend and returns to action Saturday, Sept. 26 at the Lock Haven Invitational.

BONNIES RESULTS
4. Aiden Scattergood – 26:47.35
16. Brayden Frair – 27:21.16
32. Nathan Sikorski – 27:56.60
37. William McCarthy – 28:04.66
41. Jack Handman – 28:06.98
48. Mason Curl – 28:17.90
49. Alexander Rennick – 28:19.91
52. Tadios Eyasu – 28:28.00
53. Declan McGrath – 28:29.32
61. Grant Cornell – 28:50.54
66. Caleb Davis – 28:53.07
67. Jake Schonhoff – 28:53.35
73. Layne Haught – 29:04.74
79. Nate Viele – 29:17.18
80. Luke Campbell – 29:19.00
87. Aiden Konetsky – 29:28.74
91. Canton Wetzel – 29:32.82
98. Kevin Renner – 29:43.47
99. Carter Stevens – 29:45.16
102. Lucas Catarella – 29:52.02
103. Joshua Lopez – 29:54.56
105. Ethan Shepherd – 30:00.76
122. Matthew Ryan – 31:06.22
125. Sam Duffy – 31:14.10
130. Blake Wenger – 32:25.08

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