FAIRFAX, Va. – Junior Bethany Sachtleben finished fifth overall in the women's gold 5k and junior Michael Conway finished eighth overall in the men's gold 8k as both teams had top-10 performances at the Blue Ridge Open in Boone, N.C. this afternoon.

Conway's strong finish lead Mason to a third place team finish out of 28 competing teams in the men's 8k, totaling 124 points. The junior placed eighth out of 229 individual runners with a time of 24:54.2.

Other strong finishers for Mason included senior John Holt crossing the line 20th overall in a time of 25:17.3 and senior Craig Morgan crossing in a time of 25:31, good for 36th place. Steven Flynn and Wil McReynolds finished one after the other in times of 25:39.1 and 25:40.1, respectively. Coach Andrew Gerard liked what he saw on the course today.

"I was pleased overall with the men's race today - we did several of the strategic things that we were focused on much better," said Gerard. "Things continue to come together well. We got out and established our packs much more effectively and we closed well. Now we just need to work on out mid-race racing and put a complete race together."

Sachtleben continues to lead the women's team this season, finishing her 5k in an impressive fifth (18:09.9) out of 216 runners to pace Mason to a sixth place team finish out of 27 women's teams.

Sophomore Jennifer Nakamura also had another quality race, finishing 19th overall with a finishing time of 18:49.1. Coach Sita Ewell was pleased with her top runners today.

“We had a solid day today. We had some good performances up front with Bethany and Jenn. Now we will look at tuning up for the A-10 race in a couple of weeks.”

Mason will race in its inaugural Atlantic-10 Championships on Saturday, November 2 with the first race scheduled for 11 a.m. Runners previously ran on the championships course at the Spider Alumni Open in the beginning of the season.