FINAL RESULTS

Meet: Elon Phoenix Invitational
Location: Elon, N.C (Elon Cross Country Course)
Distance: 8,000 Meters (4.97 miles)
 
Team Scoring: 1-Elon 40, 2-VCU 49, 3- Charleston 56, 4-Campbell 109, 5-North Carolina A&T 116, 6-Mount Olive 153, 7-Guilford 226, 8-Elizabeth City State 226
 
The short story: Redshirt sophomore Cole Dawson led four Rams into the top 10 as VCU earned a runner-up finish to host Elon Friday morning at the Phoenix Invitational.
 
THE FINISH LINE

• Dawson led the Rams across the tape for the second straight race, clocking 25:41.9 to place third. He was just 14 seconds off the pace of individual champion Evan Taylor of Elon
• Junior Hudson Barth was close behind for VCU in 25:59.7, which earned him a fifth-place finish
• Meanwhile, senior Kendall Phillips and sophomore Carter Smith grabbed sixth and eighth place, respectively, for the Black and Gold.
• Freshman Thomas Hess clocked ran a personal-best and rounded out the VCU scoring with a 27^th-place effort
•  Elon captured the team crown with 40 points (1-2-7-13-17), while the Rams registered 49 points for runner-up honors. Charleston was third with 56 points 

QUOTABLES
"The men had a great day at Elon. We ran well together. Missing one of our top five and still getting 2nd helped generate some more confidence as we look toward the conference championships in two weeks." – Director of Cross Country Austin Savage

"The team ran well together, and we got out strong from the start, which is good to see. We have a couple things to work on, but we are excited to have a strong conference showing in two weeks." -- Hudson Barth

"This whole season has been about building towards conference, and the last really hard effort was the Elon meet today. It was a great meet and we were able to get out and push pace from the front of the race. Two weeks until go time." -- Cole Dawson
 
NEXT UP
VCU will turn its attention to the Atlantic 10 Conference Championships, which will be held Nov. 2 at Pole Green Park in Mechanicsville, Va.