The St. Ambrose men's and women's cross country teams opened up their season Friday evening at Emeis Park in Davenport against Augustana College. Plenty of Bees posted personal bests in the meet at the 5K (men's) and 4K (women's) distance. The women were led by Kaitlyn Knoche, who placed third, while the men placed five runners in the top ten. Augustana got the team victories in both races - 25 to 30 in the men's race, and 18-45 in the women's.

For the women, Knoche finished behind two Augustana runners with a time of 15:59. Adeline Smith was the next Bee runner in ninth place with a time of 17:08. Following Smith was Merin Crowder in 17:31. SAU had the 15th, 16th, and 17th place runners for their team score of 45. Rileigh Fortune finished in 18:15 followed by Allison Hein in 18:27, and Jayne Eilderts in 18:53. Crowder, Eilderts, Hein, Knoche, and Smith posted personal bests, with Hein having the biggest improvement of the day.

On the men's side, SAU was led by Chris Miserendino. Miserendino finished in fourth place with a time of 16:35. He was followed by Will Dowda in fifth (16:44), Ian Eller in sixth (16:46.19), Luke Benes in seventh (16:46.71), and Ross Willreth in eighth (16:47). The Bees also had Noah Maske in 11th (17:06) and Trae Corby in 15th (17:28) to account for their team score of 30. Also competing for St. Ambrose were Bryan Flentge, Nathan Boleyn, Kevin Chaney, Brennon Munch, and Tommy Ashby. All twelve men posted PRs in the race with Ashby, Corby, and Miserendino improving their times by over a minute.

Next up for St. Ambrose is the Fighting Bee Invitational on Saturday, September 9th. The meet will be at Crow Creek Park in Bettendorf. The men will race at 10:30 a.m. followed by the women at 11:30.