MINNEAPOLIS - McNeese State's men's cross country team went up against the best teams in the nation here Saturday in the Roy Griak Invitational meet and more than held its own, finishing in 11th place.
"We had a very good performance," said head coach Brendon Gilroy, "and we beat a lot of the nation's higher ranked teams."
David Rooney led the way for the Cowboys with 24:50 for an 18th place finish in the meet hosted by the Univeristy of Minnesota while Joshua Sawe finished 43rd at 25:20.
McNeese totaled 368 points in the meet. Duke won the title with 83 points. Among the teams the Cowboys beat were Baylor and Arizona.
Rounding out the top five teams were North Carolina State with 92 points, New Mexico with 93, Brigham Young with 118 and Minnesota with 136.
Other results for the Cowboys had Johnathan Koenck in 84th place with a 26:04 clocking, Jarrett LeBlanc 95th at 26:11, Abdi Hassan in 128th place at 27:05 and Brent Ewing in 141st place with a 27:27 effort.
The individual champion was Stephen Sambu of Arizona with a 23:40.7 effort