The rain and lightning were not enough to slow down the Southern Arkansas Muleriders Friday evening at the 13th running of the Lois Davis Invitational. The Muleriders ran to the program's fourth invitational title and third straight by edging Ouachita 25-35.
Ouachita pushed the top two runners across in under 17 minutes, but a pack of Muleriders followed in third through eighth and tenth. Giovani Diaz was the top finisher for SAU crossing in third place (17:04.3), with Jorge Sanchez finishing fourth (17:10.7) and Brandon Escobar placing fifth (17:10.9) to round out the top five.
Pedro Cervantes (17:11.8) followed in sixth place, Joseph Uc (17:17.9) in seventh and Charles Patton (17:19.7) in eighth. Joe Duirden (17:30.8) placed tenth as the final of seven Muleriders to cross inside the top ten of the 36-runner field. Joseph Garay (18:05.2) rounded out SAU's representation as all eight Muleriders placed inside the top 15.
Not only did six Muleriders cross one after another but they did so nearly together as Diaz and Duirden were separated by 26 seconds. Fifth through seventh place, all Muleriders, were distanced by just seven seconds.
For the women, junior Logan Warren captured the individual crown while the Lady Muleriders finished second as a team.
Warren (12:40.7) paced out front of the other 53 female runners and finished eight seconds faster than the second-place finisher, but Ouachita edged SAU 29-30 as 14 of the top 15 female competitors were either Lady Muleriders or Lady Tigers, including Warren's teammates Rachel Solano (3rd; 12:59.6), Alyzah McGlasson (5th; 13:13.4), Cantley Gosdin (8th; 13:42.8) and Angel Redmond (15th; 14:13.4). J'aime Brown (17:35.5) rounded out SAU's representation in the home event.
Warren becomes the first Lady Mulerider to win the individual title since 2016 when Claudine Blancaflor claimed the top spot. Warren is the third different Lady Mulerider to win the title and it's the fourth time overall that an SAU female has crossed the tape first.
Southern Arkansas returns to action at the end of the month for the Chili Pepper Festival hosted by the University of Arkansas on Friday, September 29 in Fayetteville.