CLINTON, Miss. – The Spring Hill College men's cross country team opened their first season in NCAA Division II with a strong 4th place finish out of 10 teams at the 2014 Martin Epps Invitational held at Choctaw Trails on Saturday morning.

As a team, the Badgers scored 107 points and ran a total time of 2:32:08.30 in an average time of 30:25.66 over the 8-kilometer course. The University of West Alabama won the team contest with a total score of 19 and taking the five of the top six individual finishes.

The individual scorers for the Badgers were junior Jordan Travis from Poplarville, Miss., who finished in 9th place out of 70 runners in a time of 28:27.93 and senior John Russell of Cullman, Ala., placed 13th in a mark of 29:27.08 while freshman Carlos Rodriguez-Fierro of New Orleans, La., ran 30:39.65 for 23rd place. Junior Patrick Lameka from Chicago, Ill., placed in 26th place in a time of 30:50.54 and junior Phillip Travis of Poplarville marked a time of 32:43.10 for 40th place,

Other Badger runners were junior Terrence Hinton of Daphne, Ala., in 46th place at 32:43.10, freshman Chance Martinelli from Saucier, Miss., marked a time of 37:27.26 at 51st place and freshman Kent Cheramie of Harahan, La., rounded out the Badger competitors with a time of 48:11.00 for 65th place.

Spring Hill will next run at the Earl Jacoby Memorial hosted by the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) in Huntsville, Ala., on Saturday with the women starting at 9 a.m. and the men's gun sounding at 10 a.m.

1.    UWA 19, 2:16:16.09
2.    Belhaven 77, 2:26:06.36
3.    Jackson St 82, 2:29:01.96
4.    Spring Hill 107, 2:32:08.30
5.    Alcorn St 117, 2:33:06.23
6.    Grambling 137, 2:37:37.29
7.    Ark Pine Bluff 168, 2:48:57.92
8.    Rust 226, 3:05:48.22
9.    Tougaloo 252, 3:21:43.57
10.    Lane 289, 4:19:01.88