GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— A contingent of youthful Colorado Mesa University cross country runners took to the Lincoln Park Golf Course grass and paths on Friday evening as the Mavericks hosted the third annual Gig Leadbetter Maverick Stampede.
 
The Maverick women were led by redshirt sophomore Lauren Hodges, who placed 13^th in the 28-runner women's field with a 5-kilometer time of 20 minutes, 55.3 seconds.  Freshmen Jayna Boonstra was the second Maverick finisher in 21:26.0.
 
The Mavs also had two of their redshirts, who were running unattached, finish in the top 20.  Wehazit Kelati was 11^th in 20:42.5 while Sophia McIntyre placed 20^th in 21:26.8.
 
Fort Lewis won what amounted to a dual in the team scoring, sweeping the top five places to post a 15-49 win over the Mavericks.  Western Colorado also had two finishers but did not record a team score.
 
Fort Lewis' Peyton Burnside took the individual win in 19:36.2, finishing 8.4 seconds ahead of her teammate Tessa Stadler.
 
In the men's 8K race that followed, Peter Leary led the Mavs with a 19^th place time of 26:12.2.  Kyle Towne (26:19.2), Jayden Thulson (26:21.9) and Casey Amori (26:26.9) finished 23^rd, 24^th and 25^th, respectively.
 
Western came out on top of the 3-team men's standings with 23 points while Fort Lewis was second with 33.  CMU had a team score of 73.
 
Unattached runner Bryant Byrd, a former member of Western's team, won the race by 27.3 seconds, in 24:18.0.  Current Mountaineer Garrett Watts was the top team-scoring individual in 24:45.3.  He finished second overall.
 
The Mavericks rested nearly all of their top runners in advance of next Saturday's Lewis Crossover Invitational in Romeoville, Illinois, CMU's first large meet of the season and a chance to tune-up for the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championships two weeks later on Oct. 21 in Denver.