SOUTH BEND, Ind. - The IUPUI men's cross country team finished third of 14 teams in the Gold Race of the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational on Friday (Sept. 30) at Burke Golf Course. Sophomore Grant Moon led the charges, placing 13th of 113 runners in the 5-mile race, clocking a time of 24:42.5. The Jaguars stayed tightly bunched for the bulk of the race, putting four among the top 25 finishers on a day in which they defeated Power 5 foes Texas Tech, Nebraska and Vanderbilt. 

Junior Eric Petersen clocked a time of 24:57.5 to finish 19th overall and Nick Perkins was 21st at 25:04.4. Redshirt freshman Will Clark placed 22nd in a time of 25:08.4 and Alex Alba rounded out the scoring five in a time of 25:29.9. 

"I'm really happy with how the team did today; lots of guys ran big personal bests, so that's always something to be proud of," Moon said. "We came up short on some of our team goals but there's still plenty of time until conference to get to where we want to be."

"It was an all around solid effort for the men's program today," head coach Justin Roeder said. "We continue to progress nicely in training and racing so I'm very excited to see where we are next time out. Things are starting to click and come together, so we head back home with several lifetime bests and plenty to work on."

Both Mitchell Gits and Mitchell Rans fell off after a strong early pace with Gits clocking a time of 25:41.0 to place 55th overall. Matt Mitsch was 78th in a time of 26:18.6 and Rans closed at 26:36.2, finishing 83rd. The team's top five was separated by just 13 seconds after the opening 4K before stretching out over the second half of the race. 

Youngstown State won the team scoring with 60 points and UC Riverside was second with 113 points to edge the Jaguars by 10 points. South Alabama's Kirami Yego won the individual tape in a time of 23:23.2, beating teammate Teagan Flanagan by 31 seconds.

Keith Bye had a solid showing in the open race with a time of 26:34.4 and Justin Amburgy made his season debut with a time of 26:44.8. 

The Jaguars will return to action on Friday, Oct. 14 when they compete in the Bradley 'Pink' Invitational in Peoria, Ill.