Wolf Pack men sixth, women 11th at Watson Classic

CLINTON, Miss. — Loyola University men's cross country, led by Jace Luckoski, Jacob Kennedy and Dylan Brown, finished sixth in team scoring Friday in the Watson Classic at Choctaw Trails.
 

Loyola was 11th in the women's race.
 

Luckoski ran 8,000 meters in a career-best 25 minutes, 38.9 seconds to place eighth. Kennedy was 16th in 25:46.8, and Brown was 17th in 25:49.8. It's the only time in the last 13 seasons that three Wolf Pack men ran an 8K in less than 26 minutes in the same race.
 

Luckoski, the fastest finisher for the Wolf Pack men in all four meets this season, is No. 2 on the school's 8K all-time performer list. The top-10 finish was his third in a row.
 

Freshman Noah Watson led the Wolf Pack women for the first time and placed 55th with 24:32.9 for 6,000 meters. That vaulted Watson to No. 4 on the Wolf Pack women's all-time performer list for a 6K.
 

The Loyola men scored 171 points to place sixth out of 29 teams and sixth among 24 four-year colleges. The Wolf Pack finished ahead of all seven NCAA Division I schools, including seventh-place Jackson State.
 

The Loyola women scored 354 points to place 11th out of 29 teams and 11th among 26 four-year colleges. The Wolf Pack finished ahead of 6-of-8 Division I teams, including 20th-place Southeastern Louisiana.
 

Also competing for the Loyola men were Cole Savoy, 74th in 27:17.6; Adam Merkle, 88th in 27:41.0; Drake Breland, 105th in 28:06.9; Jacob Mullis, 111th in 28:17.0; Alastair Casler, 116th in 28:26.3; Aubrey Gibson, 132nd in 28:46.9; Cris Velasquez, 158th in 29:38.0; and Daniel Miller, 183rd in 30:30.1.
 

Also competing for the Loyola women were Ashlynn Yonge, 62nd in 24:54.8; Sela Myers, 71st in 25:15.0; Genevieve Blanc, 82nd in 25:35.1; and Vivian Bravo, 139th in 27:42.5.
 

Union (Tenn.) won the men's team title with 78 points, and Jackson State's Ryan Achau won the 8K in 24:26.4. Ouachita Baptist won the women's team title with 45 points, and Union's Addi Aguayo won the 6K in 21:23.9.
 

The men led off the morning meet under mostly sunny skies, temperature 70 degrees, humidity 84 percent and no wind. Mississippi Christian University — formerly Mississippi College — was the host. 
 

Next for Loyola will be the UAH Chargers Invitational Oct. 24 at John Hunt Park in Huntsville, Ala. The men's 8K race will start at 8 a.m., and the women's 6K will start at 8:50. It will be the final Wolf Pack meet before a third trip this season to Choctaw Trails for the Southern States Athletic Conference Championships Nov. 6.
 

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