Saturday night, August 30, marked the start of the 2025 cross country season for the Freed-Hardeman Lions and Lady Lions teams. Both teams raced at the Mike Rose Soccer Complex at the City Auto Memphis Twilight XC Classic, and both teams started the season off in a very strong way.
As the women took the starting line at 9:20 pm, excitement surrounded the Mike Rose Soccer Complex as it marked the start of the cross country season. 18 minutes and 25 seconds later, excitement came upon Freed-Hardeman University cross country runners and supporters as Eliza Poe set a new cross country school record in the 5k. Eliza was able to finish the race in 20th place against multiple NCAA Division I opponents on her way to the school record, official time of 18:24.94. Not far behind Poe, Mary Pearce was also able to finish inside the top 25 as she crossed the finish line in 18:36 in 24th place. The third finisher for the Lady Lions was Megan Lampley, who was followed by Hannah Cherry, making her Lady Lion debut, and Zola Dorris, rounding out the top five finishers. Poe, Pearce, and Lampley not only bested their time from last year at the same race but also set personal records. Poe set a PR by five seconds and ran 1:46 faster than she did last year at Memphis Twilight. Pearce also set a five-second PR and ran 1:08 faster, and Lampley set a 20-second PR while beating last year's time by 50 seconds. Elizabeth McKeeby joined this group by beating her time from last year by 31 seconds. As a team, the women finished seventh place out of 13 teams (five of the six teams that finished ahead of them were NCAA Division I schools).
At 10:00 p.m., the men's collegiate four-mile race took place to end the night full of cross-country racing. Among the 139 runners at the starting line were the Freed-Hardeman men, looking to join the women's team with a great start to the season. Similar to the women's team, the men's team started with runners beating their time from last year. Bo Scott was the first to cross the finish line as he beat his time from last year by over a minute and finished in 36th place in 20:58. Barrett Poe was next up for the Lions with just about the same time as last year. Lucas Black was next, beating his time from last year by 1:18, Neal Rowlett, making his debut, was fourth, and Brock Windham ran 48 seconds faster this year than last. Together, these five runners were able to finish in eighth place as a team out of twelve. Jay Hunt and Danny Douglas were able to finish with faster times than they started the season last year, Hunt by 1:04 and Douglas by 50 seconds.
The Freed-Hardeman teams will continue their season as they host Freed Speed in Pinson, Tenn, next Satuday, September 6.