The Freed-Hardeman Lions cross country teams competed at the Louisville Classic in Louisville, Ky. on October 3. At 11:00, the women's blue division began, and the Lady Lions took off along with 204 runners. Mary Pearce found herself among the top of the crowd, and finished in 16th place with a time of 23:11.2, averaging a 6:13 mile for 3.7-ish miles. The next three finishers were all freshmen competing in their first ever 6k race, with the previous races being 5k. Hannah Gehlert finished in 98th with a time of 25:15, Bella Lamb in 117 with 25:47, and Billie Rose Johnson in 25:59.6 to place 126. Zola Dorris finished the scoring in 151 with a time of 27:12.7. The team finished with a score of 440 points, to place 15th of 24 teams.

The men, competing in the silver division, followed shortly after the conclusion of the women's race, starting at 11:30 with 278 runners. Barrett Poe and Daniel Puckett found themselves at the front of the pack for the entire race. Poe finished in 6th, with a time of 25:55.0, averaging a 5:12 mile for just shy of 5 miles. Puckett rounded out the top-10 with a time of 26:13.4 Lucas Black grabbed a top-100 finish with a 17-second PR. Brock Windham finished fourth for the Lions, and Luke Phillips finished with a new PR, beating his previous PR by 1 minute, 19 seconds. The team finished 14th out of 30 teams, with 371 points.

Freed-Hardeman will next race in Knoxville, Tenn. at the Appalachian Challenge, a race with lots of good results and PRs for the Lions, on October 23rd.