BOONE, N.C. – Appalachian State University men's cross country opened its season by hosting the Covered Bridge Open. The Mountaineers placed second behind Wake Forest with 83 points.

Leading the Apps was Kyle McFoy who placed fifth overall with a time of 21:08.54 in the 6,400m run. The rest of the pack finished 19th through 23rd for Appalachian. Chris Anderson ran a time of 21:32.28 and Josh Cox finished with a time of 21:34.94.

In 21st, Evan Laratta finished in 21:36.04 with Grant Rodgers right behind at 21:36.48. Michael Ellis finished 23rd with a time of 21:39.34. 

Will Henderson competed as an unattached runner and placed 11th with a time of 21:18.22.

“We finished second behind Wake Forest and I figured they would be the team that would be really strong,” said head coach Michael Curcio. “As expected Kyle was up there mixing it up. Our pack did very well, but we need to move it a little bit closer. One to six we were basically 31 seconds. If we can close that up over four miles to 20 seconds it'll do a lot more.

Curcio continued, “We had some good things with our freshman standout Grant Rodgers. He did a great job for his first meet in uniform and our transfer, Evan Laratta's first race was in our top five so we're really happy with their progress. I'm really excited about watching Will Henderson. He would have been our number two guy. He was 10 seconds behind Kyle who was an all-conference runner last year.”

“Things are boding well and we're pretty happy with our first meet. We have some work to do and get used to that college level training.”