JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (Sept. 3, 2005) - The ETSU men's cross country team finished third and the women's team finished sixth, on Saturday at the Virginia Tech Invitational in Blacksburg, Va. For the men, senior Peter Dalton (Dublin, Ireland) was the top runner for the Bucs, while freshman Heather Adkins (Kansas City, Mo.) paced the Lady Bucs.

Dalton finished eighth on the 6k course in a time of 19:41.  Freshman Michael Deren (Blasdell, N.Y.) finished close behind in ninth place with a time of 19:53. Josh Hicks (Riceville, Tenn.) and Jeff Crane (Taylors, S.C.) both finished in the top 20 by placing 16^th and 18^th respectively.  Bernard Towett (Nairobi, Kenya) rounded out the top five by finishing 37^th overall.

"Michael had a good showing for his first race on the collegiate level and Jeff is a redshirt freshman and this is his first race back after having knee surgery last year, so having two freshman in our top four is encouraging," said head men's cross country coach Dave Walker.  "This race gave us the opportunity to see where we are at.  We have a lot of work to do to get ready for the A-Sun Championships in October."

On the women's side, Adkins finished 10^th in her first collegiate race in 15:51.  Senior Christine Ward placed 15^th on the 4k course in 16:07.  Traci McAmis (Cleveland, Tenn.), Allie Frazier (Knoxville, Tenn.) and Sarah Adkinson (Odenton, Md.) rounded out the top five for the Bucs. 

 "I'm really excited about how well Heather ran," said head women's cross country coach Michelle Byrne.  "She ran real aggressive and got out and really competed.  We have some injuries on our team, but I saw some good things today and was able to see how well we could compete."

In the team standings, Liberty University won the race on the men's side while Virginia Tech placed second.  Virginia Tech also took the top spot in the women's race. 

The men's team will compete next at the Greensboro Invitational in Greensboro, N.C. on September 24th, while the women's teams next meet is not until September 30th, at the Mountaineer Opener in Boone N.C.