Clayton State men place tied for third at Foothills Invitational at Jacksonville State

OXFORD, Ala. – October 8, 2011 – Running its last meet before the Peach Belt Conference championships, the Clayton State Laker men's cross country team came away with one of its stronger performances of the season on Saturday at the Foothills Invitational.

The Lakers finished third overall in the 10-team event, hosted by Jacksonville State. Clayton State earned 105 points, finishing tied with host Jacksonville State and eight points ahead of West Alabama and 11 points in front of Tennessee Tech.

Emory won the event with 85 points, edging Columbus State by eight points.

Senior Albert Mong'ony had one of his top finishes of the season, placing third overall with a time of 26:14.89 in the 8K event. Mong'ony finished seven seconds behind Ian Edwards from Columbus State.

Three Laker runners finished in close succession to each other. Freshman Alex Foss placed 23rd in 27:28.20, followed right behind in 24th by sophomore Charles Anderson in 27:28.75. Sophomore Russell Lawless finished 29th in 27:33.55.

Rounding out the Clayton State scoring was sophomore Ayrton Azcue in 47th place (28:28.03), Tanner Thomason in 61st place (28:59.20) and Preston Valencia finished 74th (29:55.36).

The Lakers will compete next in the Peach Belt Conference championships on Oct. 22 in Aiken, S.C.