Flagstaff, Ariz. – The University of Arizona cross-country team opened its 2018 campaign at the George Kyte Classic on Saturday, Sept 1st. The men took third with a score of 70 points and the women took third with 72 points.
 
"We ran pretty much all freshmen, some of them really showed to be impressive," said head cross country coach James Li. "Connor McCabe was our leader on the men's side, he finished ninth overall which is really good having three or four NAU All-Americans ahead of him. Ryan Matson, another freshman ran well. With these young guys we made progress from last year. On the women's side, we ran five ladies. Keelah Barger was our No. 1 runner finishing fifth. With it being her first collegiate race that is a really good job. The rest of the freshman showed some good competitiveness. It shows that we have a great building block to make good improvement this year."
 
Leading on the men's side was freshman Connor McCabe, who finished 9th with a time of 23:48.2. Freshman Ryan Matson finished in 16th-place with a time of 24:17.9. Senior Travis Thorne ran a time of 24:19.3 to finish in 17th-place.
 
For the women, Keelah Barger earned a fifth-place finish with a time of 16:02.6. Freshman Lauren Neugeboren took 16th place with a time of 16:43.5. Freshman Madison Christopher ran a time of 16:53.2 to finish 19th.
 
Up next, the Cats will host the Dave Murrary Invitational on Friday, Sept. 14th at Randolph Municipal Golf Course.
 
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