ABILENE – McMurry competed well as the lone D-3 entrant in Abilene Christian's Naimadu Classic on Friday.
 
The women placed third with 65 points, following Abilene Christian at 15 and Amarillo College at 62.
 
Savanna Danner led the women in eighth place in 15:26.1 on the four-kilometer course. Ashley Shea was 13th at 15:58.9, Katelyn Hernandez was 19th at 16:42, Anna Dinaso placed 22nd at 17:09.6 and Jocelyn Moreno rounded out the scoring in 30th at 17:57.8.
 
"The positives are that Savanna Danner, Ashley Shea, and Katelyn Hernandez ran well for a season opener," said McMurry head coach Corey Koch. "We need to work on closing the gap from our No. 2 to our No. 5. Overall, considering we were without four women in this race, it was a decent start to the season."
 
The men were fourth at 84, behind ACU at 15, Western Texas at 67 and Amarillo at 78.
 
Jeremiah Rodriguez led the War Hawks in 13th at 20:01.7. Roman Perez was 16th at 20:08, followed by Antonio Martinez in 22nd at 20:41.8, Rogelio Ramirez in 28th at 21:05.3 and Isaac Gonzales in 29th in 21:10.03 to finish the scoring five on the six-kilometer course. Patrick Esparza was 33rd at 22:53.5 and Jonathan Alter was 34th at 25:45.8.
 
"For the men, the positives were newcomer Jeremiah Rodriguez and junior Roman Perez," Koch said. "They ran intelligent races and looked ready for the season. However, our work is cut out for us when it comes to getting some of the others back into race shape, coming off some injuries."
 
The War Hawks return to the trails at Southwestern's SU Showdown on Sept. 14.