GUNNISON, Colo. – With six races in the books, the 2017 Mountaineer/Cowboy Invite is complete. On a near perfect Saturday morning in the mountains of Colorado, the Mountaineers kept both College Race titles at home along with taking the individual titles for both genders. 

In the Men's College Race, the Mountaineers took the team and individual titles against a short-handed Adams State squad. The first man across the line was redshirt freshman, Taylor Stack in 26:11, 28 seconds clear of his teammate Ross Husch in second. Stack's win is his first as a collegiate athlete and his second straight meet leading the Mountaineers to the finish line. Following Husch, was Bryant Byrd clocking 27:20, good enough for 9^th place. Completing the scoring for the Mountaineers were redshirt freshman Nicholas Turco in 27:25 (12^th) and Junior Marc Marcano in 27:26 (13^th). In a relative low-key meet, the Mountaineers ran 1:32 spread through seven athletes.

Following the lead of the Men, the Mountaineer Women took to the 5k course. For the Women, the team race was settled within the first 150 meters. A race that looked to be competitive in the entries left the Mountaineers competing largely amongst themselves. In her debut performance for Western, Aneta Konieczek finished second overall with a time of 18:47. The younger Konieczek lead a quartet of Mountaineers finishing 2-5 to set up the team score of 17 total points. Following Aneta to the line were Amy Penn and Erin Norton in 18:47 and 18:59, respectively. Both athletes capitalized on their home course with Penn finding her form again and Norton running her best race in a Mountaineer uniform. Closing out the scoring for the Mountaineers was Bailey Sharon in a personal best of 19:40. Similar to the Men, the women ran a 1:30 spread through their first seven athletes in a relatively sparse field.

With two weeks off until their next race at the Fort Hays Tiger Invite, the Mountaineers will focus on putting down a nice block of training to prepare for the championship season.