ROMEOVILLE, Ill. - The Concordia University Irvine cross country teams were excited to travel out to Illinois for a very unique opportunity to race against teams from all across the country on Saturday.

In the women's 6K at the Lewis Crossover, Ryann Smith shined on the course and wound up in 18th place overall in a field that featured over 260 runners toe the starting line. She clocked an impressive time of 22 minutes and 25.6 seconds and was the third fastest PacWest runner in the field.

Smith was also sixth among all west region runners that featured competitive teams such as Biola, Central Washington and Western Oregon.

Right behind Smith for Concordia was former PacWest Newcomer of the Year Ania Kapustka. The grad student placed 26th overall and was about 13 seconds behind Smith to earn key points for the Golden Eagles.

Freshman Brianna Hayes was the third CUI runner to finish followed by junior Mariza Chavez. Both of them were in the Top 100 followed by Lizbeth Garcia who was the fifth scoring runner for the Golden Eagles.

The CUI women took 11th place out of 26 competing schools and was ahead of four West Region schools in the final standings: Western Oregon, Northwest Nazarene, Simon Fraser and Alaska Fairbanks.

CLICK HERE for the full CUI women's cross country schedule

CUI senior and SAAC representative Spencer Handorf led the men's squad and was the first Golden Eagles across the finish line. He placed 51st overall in the men's 8K and was followed by a pair of sophomores. Dante Maldonado was an All-Conference runner a season ago as a true freshman and he and Lucas Morris finished within 10 seconds of each other as the second and third Golden Eagles to complete the course.

The youth was on display for this squad as freshman Isaiah Garma and sophomore Owen Stults rounded out Concordia's scoring Top 5 finishers. CUI finished in 20th place out of a wide field of 27 schools. 

The CUI men finished second out of competing PacWest programs (Biola was 12th) at this meet and finished ahead of West region foes Simon Fraser and Alaska Fairbanks.

CLICK HERE for Final Results from the Lewis Crossover

CLICK HERE for the full CUI men's cross country schedule

Both CUI cross country squad will now turn their attention to the John Elders Classic hosted by Cal State Fullerton in a couple of weeks. That race is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 24 in Fullerton.