On a hot and humid Saturday morning, the Waterloo cross-country team faced off against the top teams in the OUA at the Bill Salter Western Invitational. 

For a second week in a row, Izzy Thornton-Bott (Sydney/) lead the women's team with a terrific race, placing 12^th  with a time of 22:59 over the hilly 6km course. Following Thornton-Bott was Stephanie Ryall (Hamilton/Female) in 27^th, and rounding out the top three warriors was Megan Doleweerd (Orillia/Female) in 49^th place. The women finished 6^th in the team scoring with 173 points, an excellent result in this competitive field and a strong improvement over their 9^th place finish at this meet last year. 

An hour later the men's team took to the 8km course. The first warrior across the line was Felix Lawson (Claremont/) with a 44^th place finish and time of 27:34. Not far behind were Chris Hoftyzer (Brighton/) and Akiva Goldberg (Toronto/) in 55^th and 62^nd place, respectively. The men's team was tightly bunched with spread of just 42 seconds between the top 5 runners. In the team scoring, the men placed 9^th overall and 8^th among OUA teams, which they will look to improve upon in the coming weeks. 

Both the men's and women's teams will now have a two-week training block before competing next at the Waterloo Don Mills Open on October 5^th.