MACON, Ga. – Scott Burley, Nabil Hamid, and Jaakko Nieminen all finished in the top-five, and the Kennesaw State men’s Cross Country team was able to pull-off its’ second victory of the season at the RunFit Invitational in Macon, Ga., on Saturday.

The Owls returned to the course that they finished third at in the Atlantic Sun Championship last season, and were able to use their experience to their advantage. KSU jumped out to the front of the pack in the early going in the 8k meet, which featured 16 teams, and at one point during the first half of the race were running in a pack together. Overall, they won the meet with a total of 37 points.

“The teamwork today was awesome for us,” said Burley, who led the way with a third place finish and time of 26:54. “When we had the chance to all run together, it was great, because we were pushing each and making sure that we were all running at the same competitive pace. We did know how important it was for us to eventually separate a little bit, because we needed to each finish as strong as we possibly could, but it was a great way to set the tone.”

Hamid, a freshman, and Nieminen, a sophomore, were right behind Burley, finishing fourth and fifth, respectively, with times of 26:55 and 27:00. It was the second top-five finish for Hamid, who also finished in fourth place at the JSU Struts Season Opener on September 5th.

With the A-Sun Championship looming just a month from now, head coach Stan Sims was happy to see that his team was able to run together for an extended period of time. There is work to do, however, he noted.

“Michael Johnson really ran a great race today. It was good to see him so focused the whole way,” Sims said of the senior, who ran the course in 27:35 en route to a 12th place finish. “Running in a pack like we did was good to see, but we have to make sure that something like that doesn’t make us complacent. It can be tempting not to want to pass your teammates, but we have to make sure that our runners are shaving as many seconds off of their individual times first and foremost.”

The Owls will not run in a meet next week, and return to action in Orlando on October 10th at the Walt Disney World Cross Country Classic.

Final Results

1. Kennesaw State- 37 pts
2. Columbus State- 52 pts
3. Mercer- 72 pts
4. West Georgia- 110 pts
5. Florida Southern- 111 pts
6. Covenant- 216 pts
7. Valdosta State- 223 pts
8. GCSU- 237 pts
9. Emory- 252 pts
10. Darton- 267 pts
11. Spartanburg Methodist- 268 pts
12. North Georgia- 309 pts
13. Young Harris- 357 pts
14. Chattahoochee Tech- 425 pts
15. Clark Atlanta- 445 pts
16. Gordon College- 485 pts

Individual Results

3. Scott Burley- 26:54
4. Nabil Hamid- 26:55
5. Jaakko Nieminen- 27:00
12. Michael Johnson- 27:35
15. Peikko Solla- 27:39
21. Ryan Burruss- 28:02
54. Andrew Greeson- 29:30