THE RUNDOWN
The DBU Men's & Women's Cross Country teams ushered in the 2020 season with a pair of wins at the Orville Rogers DBU XC Opener at Lynn Creek Park in Grand Prairie on Friday afternoon.  With temperatures in the high 80s, the Lady Patriots bested a field of nine squads with a team score of 15, claiming the top seven finishes, while the men's team posted a 58 point total and saw two runners finish in the top 10.
 
DBU junior Marissa Insinna earned her first career victory with a personal record time of 18:09.6 in the 5K event.  Following Insinna, the Lady Patriots placed seven runners in the top 10 including Emily Mackel (2nd), Leslie Filorio (3rd), Madison Brown (4th), Analynne Klotz (5th), Jenna Thorman (6th), Rylee Cristan (7th), and Martha Brown (9th). 

Freshman Megan Smith raced to a 12th place showing in her first collegiate race and Lisbeth Britt (19th) and Sophia Matchett (20th) rounded out DBU's top 20 finishes in a field of 65 runners.

The men's team was led by senior Noah Metzgar, who notched his third career top 10 finish after crossing the finish line in second place with a time of 26:09.3 in the 8K race.  With his second place showing, Metzgar matched his career-best finish and recorded his second-best time in the 8K.

Freshman Preston Williamson registered a ninth place finish in his first collegiate race.  Adam Whitehead (14th), Angel Luera (15th), and Bryce Tomasek (18th) also recorded top 20 finishes.

JACOB PHILLIPS ON THE WOMEN'S FIRST PLACE FINISH
"We had some really big performances today, but we still have to get better.  I was really proud of Marissa, getting her first college win.  We also had some girls coming back from injury that stepped up today and filled in for us.  I'm really proud of the effort from our team on a hot day."

JACOB PHILLIPS ON THE YOUTH OF THE MEN'S TEAM
"We're counting on a lot of freshmen this year.  I told them after the race that you're not freshmen anymore now that they've got this race under their belt.  If we're going to win conference, it's going to come down to can our freshman guys step up?  We have to get better.  We can't win conference the way we ran today, but it was a good day overall."

UP NEXT
Both teams travel to Commerce, Texas, for the East Texas Shootout on October 2.