RIVERDALE, NY – The Johns Hopkins men's cross country team traveled north to compete in the Paddy Doyle Meet of Champions Friday morning, besting a pair of Division I programs en route to a third-place finish.
 
Emmanuel Leblond was the top runner for the Blue Jays for the second time in as many meets, crossing the finish line in ninth with a time of 25:42.5. His 9:39.4 split over the final two miles was the seventh fastest in the field and left the junior just half a second off of a top-seven finish.
 
Next to cross the line for Hopkins were Charles Teeter, Gavin McElhennon and Rowan Cassidy, who finished in 12^th, 13^th and 15^th respectively. Running within a few places of each other for the entirety of Friday's race, Teeter and McElhennon finished their day just five seconds apart with times of 25:50.9 and 25:55.4. Cassidy, meanwhile, sat in 20^th at the three-mile mark before running a 9:44.5 final two miles to pass five competitors and earn the 15^th-place finish and continue an impressive start to his sophomore season.
 
The final point-scorer for the Jays was Connor Oiler, who crossed the line in 22^nd with a time of 26:11.6. Also claiming top-30 finishes were Jonas Larson (27^th), Kenny Wanlass — who used an impressive kick to climb four spots into 29^th over the final two miles — and Tommy Li (30^th).

"[I'm] Really happy with where we are right now with the men's team," head coach Bobby Van Allen said. "We have been putting in a lot of volume and not backing off the workouts in anyway right now. So while the training is certainly staying very demanding, we're responding well and I'm excited about the next phase of our training prior to Paul Short Invite in two weeks."
 
Army West Point took home first place with 42 points, while St. Joseph's (PA) (64) and Hopkins (71) rounded out the top three teams at the meet.
 
The Jays return Saturday, Sept. 30 to compete in the Paul Short Invitational, with action set to start at 11 a.m.