Sept. 23, 2006

ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Baylor women's cross country team finished in third at the prestigious Roy Griak Invitational as freshman Nichole Jones (Spring, Texas), finishing in 16th place. On the men's side, Baylor finished in 21st place as senior Rob Morrow (Grapevine, Texas) was the first Baylor runner to finish.

"UC-Santa Barbara kind of surprised us," head coach Todd Harbour said. "But I'm happy with how we came out and competed. We may have been too aggressive and gone out a little fast, but I can't complain - to have six in the top 33 is great."

The Bears scored their best point total at the Roy Griak Invitational with 120 points, trailing only UC-Santa Barbara (87) and Arizona State (108). Baylor finished ahead of five other teams ranked among the top 30 in the country.

For the third consecutive race, Jones led the Bears. She was the highest freshman finisher in the race, finishing 16th overall with a time of 21:49.

Sophomore Erin Bedell (Plano, Texas), returning for her first race this season, was the next Bear to cross the line, finishing 22nd with a time of 21:58. Junior Lauren Hagans (Little Rock, Ark.) was the third Baylor runner to cross the line finishing in 24th with a time of 22:01 while Lyndsy Bedell (Plano, Texas) finished 25th with a time of 22:03. Senior Monique Ortega rounded out the scoring for the Bears, finishing 33rd with a time of 22:15.

On the men's side, Morrow led the Bears finishing in 30th place with a time of 25:33.

Jacob Jones (Willis, Texas) finished 82nd in 26:10, Rey Hinojosa (Cedar Park, Texas) finished 97th in 26:18, Jordan Hiller (Yoakum, Texas) finished 141st in 26:42 and Mitch Sanders (Katy, Texas) rounded out the scoring by finishing 176th in 27:15.

The men's and women's cross country teams will return to action on Saturday, Oct. 14, when the Bears travel to Fayetteville, Ark., to run in the Chile Pepper Festival.