TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - The Samford men's and women's cross country programs ran their final race of the season today at the NCAA South Regional meet. The women's side had a strong showing to finish 11th in the 31-team field while the men's side came in 18th out of 26 teams.

The Bulldog sent a squad of six seniors and one freshman on the women's side. They were led by Sinkenesh Parker who crossed the line in 43rd place, beating her previous best regional finish by two spots at last year's meet. Edie Smith and Adeline Haisch finished back-to-back in 54th and 55th place. Katie Keller finished 30 seconds behind her pair of teammates with a time of 21:33.4 to take 75th while SoCon Freshman of the Year Felicity Hamilton rounded out the the scoring positions in 78th. Macie Pfeuffer finished in 89th and Brenna Beucler came in 184th in the 215-member field of the tough south region. 

"The ladies went out aggressively and mixed it up with some really good teams," said head coach Wes Penberthy. "The level of competition in the region is tremendous. We just have such a wonderful group, and I thought it was a great send-off for all of our seniors."

As opposed to the Samford women's team, the men ran a seven-man squad without a senior and will look to build off their 18th-place finish today. The Dogs finished in the same order they did at their conference meet, led by Andrew McGinnis who came in 78th place. William Jordan and David Brown crossed the line together, just outside of the top 100 spots while freshmen Arthur Langley and Stephen Jones rounded out the top-5 placers for Samford in 126th and 128th respectively. William Murray and William Tuckis finished 144th and 151st in the 184-man race.

"I thought the men competed really well," said Penberthy. "It was the first 10k race for six of the seven guys. They battled through and held on for a good team finish. I am really proud of their effort today."

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