Ani Mutafova helped the Big Red to a fifth place finish at Cedarville on Saturday.

Katie Navarre (Upper Arlington, Ohio/Upper Arlington) turned in another outstanding performance, placing second overall, at the 19th annual Friendship Invitational hosted by Cedarville University.  Her finish combined with four other top-42 finishes helped the Big Red place fifth out of 16 teams.

Not only did DU secure an outstanding team finish, they did so while taking on some stiff competition.  Denison was second among NCAA Division III schools with only Otterbein placing higher (fourth place). The team championship went to Division II, Ashland while second and third place were held down by NAIA schools Cedarville and Shawnee State.

Navarre covered the 5K course in 18:11 which was good for a 5:52 pace.  She was followed by first-year Julie Cantelon (Ann Arbor, Mich./Pioneer) who placed 15th out of 181 runners thanks to her time of 19:32.  Sophomore Ani Mutafova (Canton, Ohio/Jackson) continued to show improvement in her second year by turning in a time of 19:51 thank placed 24th overall.

Rounding out the scoring runners for DU was junior Kirby Mosenthal (Briarcliff, N.Y./Irvington) who placed 39th in 20:25.  Senior Kelsey Pence (Columbus, Ind./Columbus North) was 47th overall after crossing the finish line in 20:34.

Denison is off next weekend and will return to competition on Friday (Oct. 2) at the All-Ohio Championships in Delaware, Ohio.

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