BRONX, N.Y. — Four top 10 finishes by Columbia cross country highlighted a solid day at the Mets XC Championships, held at Van Cortlandt Park on a beautiful Friday, Oct. 7 morning.
 
Both the men and the women each posted a pair of top 10 finishes and overall, the Lion men finished third and the Lion women finished fourth. For the men, Matt Gatune and Ian Noble finished inside the top 10 in the 8K and in the 6K Kaitlynn Wolfe and Kate Kuwahara collected top 10 times for the women.
 
Gatune, running his first collegiate race, posted an 8K time of 21:11.8 to finish fifth, the best finish by a Lion on the day. And running a few minutes behind him was Noble, who finished his race seventh with a time of 21:52.2 to give the Lion men their two top 10 finishes.
 
Wolfe, who crossed the line at 20:05.8, was running her first race of the 2022 season and her time was good enough to finish sixth. Just coming across the line inside the top 10 was Kuwahara, who finished ninth with a time of 20:18.5.
 
COLUMBIA RESULTS
Mets Cross Country Championships (Oct. 7, 2022)
Bronx, N.Y. (Van Cortlandt Park)
 
WOMEN (5K)
(1. Andria Scaglione, Manhattan, 18:52.7); 6. Kaitlynn Wolfe, 20:05.8; 9. Kate Kuwahara, 20:18.5; 12. Angela Saidman, 20:35.2; 21. Story Downing, 21:07.1; 33. Susan Jimenez, 22:22.0; 40. Olivia Schmitt, 23:17.9; 42. Zoe Harris, 25:48.0
 
MEN (8K)
(1. Nathan Bezuneh, Fordham, 26:35.9); 5. Matt Gatune, 21:11.8; 7. Ian Noble, 27:52.2; 18. Juan Zarate-Sanchez, 29:04.5; 19. Nixon McKenzie, 29:32.3; 31. Austin Rios-Colon, 31:12.4
 
FOLLOWING THE LIONS: Stay up to date on all things Columbia cross country by following the Lions on Twitter (@CULionsXCTF), Instagram (@culionsxctf) and on Facebook (@ColumbiaAthletics).