Friends traveled to Victoria, KS for the Fort Hays State Tiger Open this past weekend. A total of 168 female runners from 17 teams and 226 male runners from 22 teams made the trip to western Kansas.

In the women's race, senior Rachel Renken (Downs, KS) paced the Falcons with 41st place finish with freshman Destyni Lucero (Liberal, KS) coming in less than a minute behind her in 76th. Senior Connie Collins (Magnolia, OH) and sophomore Haley Welch (Rose Hill, KS) rounded out the top-100 finishers for Friends.

The women's team finished 11th out of the 17 teams, made up most of junior colleges and NCAA Division II schools.

On the men's side, senior Brock Nooney (Haysville, KS) finished tops for Friends, coming in at 51st. Pushing him was junior Peyton Wade (Haviland, KS) was just 3.7 seconds behind him in 56th. The men as a team were 15th out of the 22 schools competing.

Of the 17 runners in the meet for Friends, 10 of them set personal records.

Coach Damian Smithhisler saw it as another step in the right direction and good preparation against top competition: "This was really a breakthrough meet for us. We knew we were going to run fast going into it. The conditions were good, course fast, and great competition. This is the kind of performance that can give us positive momentum as we roll into the last few weeks prior to Conference. We've kind of reset our focus now and have a positive mindset as to what we can do both individually and as a team at the KCAC Meet."

The Falcons next go to Winfield for the NAIA Mid-States Classic hosted by Southwestern College on October 26th.