CLAREMONT, Calif. - The eighth-ranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's cross country team rested the runners who competed at the NCAA Division III Pre-Nationals two weeks ago in Spartanburg, South Carolina and still had a solid performance, earning a sixth-place finish out of 20 teams at the Pomona-Pitzer Invitational on Saturday. 

Jerry Xu was the top finisher for CMS in 34th place in 26:03.8, while Charlie Routledge was also in the top 50 in 47th place with a 26:29.4. Daniel Voyles (55th), Rowan Haywood O'Neill (63rd) and William Halpin (64th) also scored by finishing in the top five for the Stags, while Jackson Giamurra earned a top-100 finish in 90th

CMS sent eight runners to compete at the NCAA Division III Pre-Nationals two weeks ago, including two-time SCIAC Athlete of the Week Hayden Beauchemin, as the Stags finished second on the course that will host nationals. Jacob Pippel, Pierce Clark, Jonas Rickert, Hale Behan and Brennan Tobin all finished in the top 20 at Pre-Nats, which were held on Sept. 20. 

The entire team competed last week at the UC Riverside Invitational on Sept. 27, and the runners who went to Spartanburg sat out this week to recover and gear up for the stretch run in November. 

CMS will be back in action in two weeks, when some of the team will travel to the Connecticut College Invitational, and others will go to the UC Riverside Highlander Classic, before competing at the SCIAC Championships at Pomona-Pitzer on Nov. 1.