The Kent State women’s cross country team and men’s runner Alex Stamper both opened their fall season with a win on Friday, Nov. 6.

The men’s and women’s team both competed in the 52nd annual Tommy Evans Invitational in Norton, Ohio, hosted by the University of Akron. The women ran a 6K race and the men an 8K.

The women’s team defeated Akron and the Buffalo thanks to five top-eight finishers. The Flashes fastest time was taken by junior Leah Lisle, who finished third overall with a time of 23:20.

Behind Lisle were senior Nicole Fleming in fourth with a 22:41 and senior Samantha Hyme directly behind her with a 22:45 fifth place showing. Junior Kalli Barret and senior Maddie Dunlap also finished in the top-eight to score for KSU.

On the men’s side, the junior Stamper ran the best race of his collegiate career, finishing first with a time of 24:46. This was Stamper’s first 8K win ever as a Golden Flash.

Unfortunately for the Flashes the rest of the field was dominated by Buffalo, which took the six of the top eight positions to defeat Kent State 39-22.

The other KSU runner to finish in the men’s top eight was Drew Johnson, who placed fifth with a time of 25:22. Freshman Braxton Tate finished tenth.

This race will be the only competition experience in the fall for Kent State. Both team’s only other scheduled event is the Mid-American Conference on Nov. 21.

Owen MacMillan is a sports editor. Contact him at [email protected].

SUPPORT STUDENT MEDIA 

Hi, I’m Lauren Sasala, a senior journalism student from Toledo. I’m also the editor in chief of The Kent Stater and KentWired this semester. My staff and I are committed to bringing you the most important news about Kent State and the Kent community. We are full-time students and hard-working journalists. While we get support from the student media fee and earned revenue such as advertising, both of those continue to decline. Your generous gift of any amount will help enhance our student experience as we grow into working professionals. Please go here to donate.