The Tusculum College men's and Women's cross country teams competed at the Carson-Newman Challenge at Panther Creek State Park Saturday morning. The Pioneer men finished third out of seven teams, while the women were seventh out of eight squads.

On the men's side, Tennessee Wesleyan led the way with 35 points, followed by Lincoln Memorial (45), Tusculum (68), Carson-Newman (104), Virginia-Wise and Covenant in a tie for fifth (145) and Maryville (148).

David Cooper and Lawson Burrow each earned top-10 finishes in the eight-kilometer race for the Pioneers. Cooper ran 27:39 to finish second among collegiate runners to Hilary Cheruiyot of Tennessee Wesleyan (27:31). Burrow finished ninth with a time of 28:55, and was followed in 13th place by Zachary Simpson (29:40) and Kekona Soon in 16th (30:09). Elijah Minter was the final scorer for the Pioneers in 29th place with a time of 31:56.

Former Tusculum standout Simon Holzapfel, a two-time South Atlantic Conference cross country champion and three-time All-Southeast Region honoree, competed as an unattached runner and was the overall race winner with a time of 27:10.

In Women's action, Milligan led the way with 34 points, followed by Lincoln Memorial (54), Covenant (85), Carson-Newman (88), Tennessee Wesleyan (133), Maryville (156), Tusculum (158) and Virginia-Wise (230).

Tusculum was paced in the five-kilometer race by freshman Paige Bible, who finished 15th with a time of 21:59. Fellow freshman Maggie Bernabei claimed 20th in 22:16, followed by Jenny Grant in 38th (24:42) and Ashley Gregg in 42nd (24:51). Rounding out the scoring for the Pioneers was freshman Allison Hall in 47th place with a time of 25:17.

Carson-Newman's Hannah Reese was the individual champion with a time of 20:21, four seconds ahead of runner-up Meagan Wright of Milligan.

The Pioneers will return to action on Saturday, Sept. 29 at the Bulldog Invitational in Charleston, S.C.