COMPLETE RESULTS
PHOTO GALLERY

The High Point University men's cross country team opened the season with a second-place finish at the Covered Bridge Open on Friday in Boone, N.C. Freshman Patrick Crawford finished second in his collegiate debut and junior Neal Darmody finished fourth in the meet.

"I was very pleased with the race," said HPU head coach Mike Esposito. "Neal is very fit. There's no excuses, but he actually took a wrong turn in the woods which cost him some time. The freshman Patrick Crawford is solid, he's been showing that since he came to camp. Jevin Monds is a different runner right now, he's healthy and it's starting to show. Our emphasis was to close the race well and, by and large, we did."

North Carolina won the meet with 41 points. High Point scored 75 to top Appalachian State (80), Wake forest (113) and Davidson (119). Elon placed sixth with 150 points followed by Shorter (194), Florida State (215) and East Carolina (252).

Crawford ran with the leaders for the entire race before moving up from fourth to second place over the last mile. He finished in 19:42.66 for the 6,400-meter course. North Carolina senior Evan Watchempino pulled away for the victory in 19:38.14 over that same stretch.

Ryan Hopkins from Davidson finished third in 19:44.59 to hold off Darmody, who placed fourth in 19:46.55. Senior Jevin Monds placed ninth in 20:06.47.

Sophomore Jacob Smith and freshman John Yankello rounded out HPU's scorers. Smith placed 23rd in 20:27.67 and Yankello took 39th in 20:46.05. Freshman Jacob Roach placed 68th in a time of 21:13.60.

Junior Mike Feroe placed 70th for HPU in a time of 21:16.01 and junior Mike Ali placed 93rd in 22:02.28. Closing it out for HPU were Jonathan Riley in 99th, Anthony Kilar in 109th and Mike Peavey in 114th.

Next up for the Panthers will be the Big South Preview on Sept. 25 at Radford. The meet will be on the same course as the Big South Championship on Oct. 30.