GUNNISON, Colo.  The first outing of the season was a good one for Western's Colorado's men's and women's cross country teams as they swept their respective events at Saturday's 14th Annual Mountaineer/Cowboy Invite.

Along with the first-place team finishes, the Mountaineers' Simon Kelati captured the men's 8-kilometer title.

JUST THE FACTS
Event: Mountaineer/Cowboy Invite
Location: Gunnison Community Schools, Gunnison, Colo.
Final scores, men's 8K: 1. Western – 23 points, 2. Colorado Mesa University – 36 points
Final scores, women's 5K: 1. Western – 20 points, 2. Colorado Mesa – 39 points
Top 3, men: 1. Simon Kelati, Western (25:59.0), 2. Ethan Abbs, CMU (26:04.5), 3. Tony Torres, CMU (26:06.3)
Top 3, women: 1. Kira MacGill, CMU (18:00.3), 2. Katie Doucette, Western (18:00.6), 3. Allison Beasley, Western (18:08.9)

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The men's 8K broke into a lead group and a chase group as the race cruised through the first mile or so, with the lead pack consisting of, as expected, Western's and Mesa's top seven or so runners.
• The next two miles saw that lead pack string out a bit, with Kelati leading the way.
• As the race worked its way through the 5K point, Kelati lengthened the gap. "I think it was a little bit of a combination of picking up my own pace and maybe the others not matching that," said the eventual race winner.
• The pack of six runners immediately behind Kelati jockeyed for place over the last mile or so, with four of them – two from each team -- finishing within three seconds of each other.
• Mesa's pair earned second and third place, ahead of Western's Ryan Outler and Juan Diaz, who finished with a sprint from near the rear of that small pack to tie teammate Ryan Outler with a time of 26 minutes, 7.8 seconds.
• Will Johnson in sixth and Michael Grabowski in seventh closed out the five scoring positions for Western, producing a first-to-fifth gap of just 17 seconds.
• The women's 5K had a foursome break from the pack through the opening mile, as Western's Doucette, Beasley and Leah Taylor and Mesa's MacGill set the pace.
• Halfway through the race it was Doucette, Beasley and MacGill out front with Taylor a short distance behind, solidly in fourth.
• Not until the final three-quarters of a mile or so did Doucette and MacGill establish a break from Beasley.
• The race came down to a dual between the lead two, with MacGill edging out Doucette by a scant 3/10ths of a second. Beasley was third, only eight seconds back from the leaders.
• After a gap, Taylor finished fourth, followed by Dulce Carlos in fifth, eight seconds behind Taylor.
• Emma Kjellsen was the final scoring runner from Western to finish, edging out for sixth place overall Mesa's Kendall White by three seconds.
• The Invite also included middle school boys and girls 3K races prior to the college races, which were followed by high school boys and girls 5K events.

UP NEXT
Western will participate in the Gig Leadbetter Maverick Stampede at Colorado Mesa in Grand Junction, Colo., on Saturday, October 8.