WINNECONE, Wis.-- The Trine men's cross country team placed 28th in the UW-Oshkosh AAE Invitational, held Saturday on the national championship course at Lake Breeze Golf Club.

The performance of Thunder runners earned the team 801 points in the meet. Despite running without several of the team's top runners, Trine was able to finish third among MIAA schools competing in the race. The Invitational served as a pre-national meet, which saw teams from 13 states participating in the race. A total of 419 runners representing 45 schools competed in the men's race. As a whole, the event featured 1,404 runners from 143 teams.

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The team was led by freshman Kody Snyder (Burnettsville, Ind./Twin Lakes), who earned the team 100 points. He posted a time of 25:54 on the 8K course. Snyder has improved his 8K time by over a minute since the start of the fall.

Ricardo Castillo (Goshen, Ind./Goshen) ran a personal-best 8K time of 26:23. He beat his previous-best time, set one week ago by one second. Castillo has seen his 8K time improve by over five minutes since the beginning of the season.

Nicholas Zak (St. John, Ind./Hanover Central), Michael Becker (Wauseon, Ohio/Wauseon) and Cody Verhey (Martinsville, Ind./Martinsville) rounded out Trine's top five. Zak finished in 26:33, while Becker and Verhey came in at 26:39. Becker and Verhey each ran season-best times.

Trine will compete in the MIAA Championship, set for Saturday, Oct. 31 at Hope. The Thunder placed third in the conference's Jamboree, which counts one-third towards the final standings.