SEATTLE – The UBC Thunderbirds men's cross country squad placed three runners in the top ten while securing second place as a team in their first race of the season Saturday at the Emerald City Open in Seattle.
 
The T-Birds' women's team entered three runners Saturday on the Lower Woodland Park course, not enough to qualify for a team score, but first-year Sienna Lalonde had an exceptional first cross country race as a Thunderbird, finishing third on the six kilometre circuit with a time of 23:35.
 
"Today was a great start to the season," said UBC assistant coach Brant Stachel. "We opened with a few of our vets and rookies on a great course in Seattle."
 
Fourth-year T-Bird Lukas Jarron was the fourth individual runner to cross the finish line on the eight-kilometre men's course Saturday morning, finishing in 26:54. First-year Liam Dwyer was the second Thunderbird across, just nine seconds behind Jarron in sixth place.
 
Jake Weston was the third T-Bird to finish, coming across the line in 27:21, good for eighth place in the field of 56 runners.
 
Another rookie 'Bird factored in the scoring for UBC as Liam Kramer finished 16^th overall and 13^th among team associated competitors with a time of 28:02. Fourth-year Stefan Biro rounded out the scoring contingent for the T-Birds with a 23^rd place (16^th team eligible) time of 28:31.
 
Third-year Austin Sutherland and rookie Logan Hwang finished 38^th and 39^th respectively.
 
Following in Lalonde's footsteps, literally, for the T-Bird women was fellow freshman Hannah Milic who finished tenth with a time of 24:02. Maddy Rivelis also had a solid race, the 16^th to cross the finish line in 24:59.

View this post on Instagram

When I asked my university coach for an extra 6K this was NOT what I had in mind #XCszn

A post shared by Sienna (@siennalalonde) on Sep 21, 2019 at 4:30pm PDT

"The athletes are still settling in and ran with tired legs today as we haven't really cut back the volume," added Stachel. "I'm excited to build upon this weekend as we chase our individual and team season goals on the road to Kingston."
 
Next up for the 'Birds are a pair of races next weekend where the teams will be split for competitions on both sides of the border. The T-Birds will take part in the UVIC Invitational in Victoria next Saturday as well as the Minnesota Roy Griak Invitational in St. Paul.
 
The Canada West championships will take place in Calgary on October 26^th while the U SPORTS national championships will once again be held in Kingston, Ontario on November 9^th.