Ruiz Notches Top-20 Finish At MVC Championships

Friday, October 27

Nashville, TN

Murray State

2023 MVC Championships

10/27/2023 6:43:00 PM | Men's Cross Country

Jorge Ruiz secured his fourth top-25 finish of the season.

By: Drew Parsley/Graduate Assistant

The Murray State men's cross country team ended the MVC Championships in ninth place, totaling 234 points in Nashville, Tennessee on Friday.

"We had a slower start to the season, but the men have really turned it around within the last few weeks," head cross country coach Jordan Johnston said. "They all raced with a lot of mental toughness, which is a difficult skill to master."

Jorge Ruiz led the Racers with a 19th-place finish in 25:19.2, just over 20 seconds behind the top-10 finishers.

Vicente Correia ran a time of 25:50.7 and finished the race in 37th out of 88 finishing competitors.

Jarod Willis ended Friday's race with a time of 26:08.1, his best time of the season since the WKU Invitational. Dan Schalk notched a time of 27:26.9.

Gabe Russell rounded out the counting scores for the Racers with a time of 27:42.5.

Murray State will return to competition when they travel to Spartanburg, South Carolina on Friday, November 10 for the NCAA Southeast Regional Championship.

"They were very focused on our team goal going into this championship," Johnston added. "It was great to see them stay very engaged with most of them consistently moving up throughout the entirety of the race."