NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The Gustavus men's and women's cross country teams competed at the St. Olaf Invitational on Saturday, running in a field of 22 teams from across the region. The Gustie women finished fifth with 167 points, while the men took 11th with 307 points.
 
Molly Liston highlighted the day for the Gusties by taking sixth place individually in a field of 282 runners. Liston crossed the 6k line in 22:46.6, which was 49 seconds behind the winner, Hannah Preisser of Carleton. Sydney Hagen was next for Gustavus, finishing 13th in 23:48.5. Kailyn Walukas took 49th in 24:46.2, Mackenzie Murphy placed 52nd in 24:51.6, and Aubrey Mair clocked in at 25:25.3 for 70th place.

"She has some big goals for the year," said Head Coach Brenden Huber of Liston. "We feel this year she is taking the step of putting herself in position to go get it. She got up with people who are going to be at the national meet and put her name out there for someone to watch this post season. Sydney Hagen did really well as well in the top 15. She's been building every year and to see her be ahead of people from really good teams, that carried throughout our team. It set the tone. I'm really happy with the women and I think we got a lof of confidence from today." 
 
Tyler Smith paced the Gustie men with a 23rd place finish out of 309 runners, crossing the 8k line in 26:33.10. Mohammed Bati of Augsburg won the race handedly with a time of 24:42.3. Will Janzen took 61st in 27:26.0, Henry Landsem finished 114th in 28:26.10, Carson Roehl took 120th in 28:30.4, and Camden Cilek placed 140th in 28:58.2 to round out the top five for the Gusties.

"We were missing three of our top five today and some of those nxt guys really answered the call today," Huber said. "Starting with Tyler he was in the top 10 with a mile to go. He really had a great learning experience today. When you have those vacant spots you need to be ready to go. We knew it wasn't going to be the best in the results but we are still really happy with that effort form that group. I think we took some steps forward today and we know what we need to clean up moving forward. We'll get stronger." 

Gustavus has next weekend off before competing at the annual Carleton Running of the Cows on Oct. 5.