ARKADELPHIA, Ark. — The Mulerider Men's and Women's Cross Country crews have begun the 2025 season with their first meet of the campaign taking place in Clark County at the Bob Gravett Invitational hosted by Ouachita Baptist University.
Both squads completed their 5 kilometer race with a top-four team finish with the Mulerider Men scoring a 47 and placing second and the Women placing fourth with a score of 109.
Mulerider Men
The Southern Arkansas Men saw a pair of top-ten finishers in Wesley Maxwell and Isaac Gass as Maxwell placed fourth of 68 with a performance (15:19.77) that crushed his previous showing in the 2023 BGI (15:49.6). The finish is also the senior's personal best by far in his career for the distance.
Gass had himself quite the season opener as the senior from Jessieville, Arkansas placed sixth in the 5K after finishing the race with a time of 15:28.71 and blew his previous 5K PR (17:03.4) out of the water, which also took place at the Bob Gravett Invitational back in 2023.
Nine Mulerider Men finished with the top half of the meet, those men included Lyndon Orr (14th | 15:45.81 | 16:25.6), Fintan Lehmann (16th | 15:49.54 | PR), Brandon Escobar (21st | 16:00.00 | PR), Joseph Uc (22nd | 16:00.15 | PR), Myson McFall (24th | 16:14.33 | PR), Johnny Hart (25th | 16:55.88 | PR), Diego Moya (27th | 16:21.08), Hez Morris (29th | 16:25.73 | PR), and Jack Landrum (30th | 16:27.08 | PR).
Mulerider Women
The best finish for the Mulerider Women ended up being the senior from Tomball, Texas, Ava Zindler. Zindler made her mark at her first and final Bob Gravett Invitational as she placed 11th out of 94 competitors with her time of 18:50.73. The Lone Star native's time was just shy of her 5K personal best as she was just five seconds behind that PR of 18:45.55.
Staying in the top half of the outing was Rylee Robinson, as the sophomore from Fort Worth, Texas finished the race with a time of 19:50.97 to claim 36th place.
Three other Mulerider Women finished within the top-70 in Cantley Gosdin (64th | 20:59.68), Kailee Carr (68th | 21:20.06), and Kaylie Goad (70th | 21:25.18).
Next Up:
The Muleriders take a week off from competition to prepare for the return of the Lois Davis Invitational after a year-long hiatus from the annual meet. The LDI is set to take place as a part of Family Day Weekend at Southern Arkansas University with the event taking place on the evening of September 19th (Friday) on the campus of Southern Arkansas University.
