NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Austin Peay State University men and women's cross country teams got a chance to see where they stacked up in the Ohio Valley Conference at the Vanderbilt Invitational, Saturday. The men finished ninth out of 16 teams while the women came in 14th out of 18.

Among OVC squads, the men defeated Tennessee Martin and Murray State but were bested by Jacksonville State, Tennessee Tech and Morehead State. The women defeated Tennessee State but didn't fare so well against the rest of the league, finishing behind Jacksonville State, Tennessee Martin, Tennessee Tech, Morehead State, Murray State and Eastern Kentucky.

"Overall, I thought we improved from two weeks ago," said head coach Doug Molnar. "The times were slower because of the rain and mud, but I thought we raced better."

The men's side featured top-25 finishes from sophomores Enock Langat (23rd, 27:31.14) and Andre Briama (25th, 27:33.50) in the eight-kilometer event. Sophomore Boniface Yator had a nice run as well, finishing 55th with a 28:36.35 mark.

"Langat and Briama both need to be more aggressive earlier in the race," said Molnar. "They moved up nicely from around the 40th position after the first mile, but they need to be moving up from around 25th into the top 15 or so. Yator ran better this week, but still not close to what he can do. He should be with Langat and Briama."

The Lady Govs were led by sophomore Janelle Avery's 45th-place finish with a 20:33.77 time in the five kilometer run. Senior Shamail Larsen finished 70th (21:24.44) and freshman Alyssa Molnar improved on her first meet, finishing 88th with a 22:04.23 mark.

"The women raced competitively, but just couldn't put it all together," said Molnar. "Alyssa improved 35 seconds from her run two weeks ago, so I'm happy with that. Janelle was running in the top-20 until the last 800 meters or so and she couldn't hold on. We'll address that this week and get ready for Louisville on Oct. 3."