MAGNOLIA, Ark. – The Northwestern Oklahoma State Men's Cross Country team took the course this morning at the Great American Conference Championship where the Rangers came away with a 6th place finish.

On the very challenging course in Magnolia, the Rangers ran a solid race averaging a time of 29:50 overall. The overall average was a three minute improvement over last year's average time as a team, an incredible feat.

Transfer junior from Kilgore, Texas, Clayton Fletcher paced the Rangers for the fifth straight meet and did so running a time of 28:36.72, which is really impressive due to the fact that he has been unable to practice over the last two weeks due to injury. Fletcher finished the race in 28th overall.

The rest of the Ranger squad ran in a tight pack as they finished in 36th-40th overall.

Freshman Chris Kincaid led the second wave of Ranger runners, finishing in a time of 29:57.60 while fellow freshman Ben Ivory came in just one second behind at 29:58.82.

The next three Northwestern runners were only 33 seconds apart total, led by Sam Goddard who came in 38th place, completing the race in a total time of 30:11.57. Up next was Tyler Mueller who was just nine seconds off Goddard's pace, running a time of 30:20.56.

Rounding out the Ranger Runners was Colton Reed who paced himself at 6:11.2 per mile, equaling a total time of 30:44.81.

Coach Lancaster was also proud of how the men competed as well.

“We finished where we were predicted, but their race strategy paid off,” Lancaster said. “Fletcher led the pack while four of the five freshman either PR'd or equaled it. In the small field of conference men's teams, we knew we had to focus on getting our performances better and they really took the challenge and went out with the pack.”