RUSTON – The Louisiana Tech cross country team opened up the season at Northwestern State's Demon Preview Friday evening in Natchitoches. The women saw three finishes among the top 25 including a pair of sub 16-minute performances.
 
Lexa Thompson set a new mark today after posting 15:40.65 with the best finish by a Bulldog coming in at 15th in the women's 4k. Delaney Lopez followed just behind her at 15:43.85 to finish 17th.
 
Along with Thompson, Bailey Springer, Gracie Pepitone, Katie Langford, Brooke Fontenot, Katelyn Bucci and Mallory Swint also broke their personal records in Friday's race.
 
Freshman Brayden Vining saw the top finish for Tech on the men's side, coming out as 25th overall with a time of 20:30.64 in the men's 6k. Vining was the only LA Tech competitor for the men to finish with a time under 21 minutes.
 
The top five finishes for both the men and women are listed below:
 
Women's Top 5
Lexa Thompson – 15:40.65 (15th)
Delaney Lopez – 15:43.85 (17th)
Bailey Springer – 16:19.43 (23rd)
Gracie Pepitone – 17:07.07 (30th)
Katie Langford – 17:18.46 (32nd)
 
Men's Top 5
Brayden Vining – 20:30.64 (25th)
Jake Piles – 22:38.41 (35th)
Grayson Smith – 22:55.62 (36th)
Dillon Sanchez – 23:10.66 (37th)
Arie Linton – 23:16.35 (38th)
 
Head Coach Brian Johnson following the first competition for the Cross-Country teams:
"I thought we did well. I was excited that this was our opener and I feel like our team did well. For us just coming in and they've only been training one week—for us to be able to come out here and compete well. We had a few kids who had never run this distance before, got a chance to run it, and we're just building. I feel like Brayden Vining did well. He was aggressive, came out and wasn't scared and ran a PR, which he's never ran this distance before so it was a huge PR for him. I just think this is a young team that's building and we're going to race again in two weeks, we'll be a little bit stronger, a little bit more confident and I feel like by the time November 1 comes around we will be exactly where we need to be to be competitive in the conference."

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