Emory cross country headed to Charlotte, NC this afternoon to compete in the Queen City Invite, with the women's team taking third place out of 20 teams and the men's team coming in eighth out of 21 teams. Emory was the highest-performing Division III team in the field for on the men's and women's side.

The event began on the women's side where freshman Ayla Cooke led the women's squad in the 5k, placing 26^th with a time of 18:01.80, shaving just over 20 seconds off her time from the KSU Stan Sims Opener.

Right behind her was junior Payton Fleming and senior Madison Tiaffay, coming in 33^rd and 39^th place respectively.
Sophomore Davis Johnson, junior Cameron Gupta, freshman Ashley Clyman and junior Elise Picard were the next group across the finish line for Emory, all finishing in under 19 minutes and placing in the top 60 out of 100 finishers. The women put up 133 points for the team standings.

On the men's side in the 8k, sophomore Ryan Van De Berghe led the team with his top-30 finish, coming in with a time of 25:29.7.
Following Van De Berghe were freshman Owen Larson and junior John Urciuoli, both finishing in just under 26 minutes.

Soon after the sophomore duo of Dalton Lowery and Carsen Valenta crossed the finish line, placing in the top 75 and coming in just over 26 minutes.The freshmen trio of Michael Versaci, Korben Lewis and Logan Clark came in shortly after, all finishing in under 26:30.  The men's squad put up 215 points for the team standings.

Cross country will be back on the course in two weeks as runners on both teams will head to either the Georgia Tech Invitational in Fairburn, GA or the Paul Short Run in Bethlehem, PA.