HUNTSVILLE, Ala.— Both of Drury's cross country teams had strong showings on Saturday in the Alabama-Huntsville Invitational, one of the largest and most competitive regular season meets in NCAA-II.
 
Drury's Bradley Weimer was third overall in the five-kilometer women's race as the Panthers finished 13^th out of 44 teams. Drury finished with 382 points and edged Embry-Riddle by a single point for 14^th. Cedarville, ranked number seven in NCAA-II, won the event with 46 points, while sixth-ranked Wingate was second with 105 points and Lee, number 10 in NCAA-II, came in third with 112.
 
The Drury men's team was 17^th in a field of 48 teams and featured just a 55-second spread with their top five runners. The Panthers had 552 points to finish two ahead of Rogers State in 18^th. Wingate, ranked fourth nationally, won the meet with 53 points, while sixth-ranked Lee was second with 87 points and Charleston (W. Va.) (ranked 16^th in NCAA-II) was third with 101.
 
"I was really pleased with the performance of both teams to come out to this high level of a national meet and perform the way they did," said Drury men's and women's cross country head coach Lee Wood. "I feel like both teams are continuing to improve overall each week. We had great races as we prepare for the conference meet in two weeks. I also want to give a shout-out to Bradley, who finished third and beat several All-Americans from last year in a loaded field."
 
Weimer, a junior from Springfield (Central HS), ran the fastest five-kilometer time in program history as she finished third in the field of 400 runners with a time of 17:23.1. She broke Claire McCune's record of 17:28 set in 2018 at the Chile Pepper Festival at Arkansas, by nearly five seconds. Weimer was less than eight seconds off the winning time as Johanna Wistokat from Christian Brothers won the event with a time of 17:15.7. Elise Leveel from Charleston (W. Va.) was second (17:19.6).
 
Zoe Van Dijk came in 57^th for Drury crossing the finish line in 18:24.0, while Jayme-Sue Vermaas was 96^th (18:46.7). Mia Harris finished 118^th posting a time of 19:01.3, and Jasmyn Douglas rounded out Drury's top five runners as she came in 155^th (19:25.8). Brylee Gogel crossed the line in 161^st (19:30.4), and Maddie Bennett was right behind her in 163^rd with a time of 19:30.9.
 
Colby Garner, a sophomore from Springfield (Kickapoo HS), led Drury men's squad and finished 101^st among 486 runners with a time in the eight-kilometer run of 25:06.7. William Kershaw was 120^th (25:16.1) and Gabriel Bauer finished 147^th (25:31.9). Collin Emmert crossed the finish line in 155^th with a time of 25:39.6, while Ethan Hayes rounded out Drury's top five coming in 200^th (26:01.8). Cole Sutton was 268^th for Drury (26:45.1) and Tyler Adams was 296^th (27:00.5).
 
Both Drury teams compete again in the Great Lakes Valley Conference championship meet on Nov. 5 in Elsah, Illinois.
 
 
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