Both the Laurentian men's and women's cross-country teams cracked the top ten this past weekend as 13 universities gathered to competed at the 49th Annual Vigars and Salter Western Invitational (8km) in London (ON) on the rolling setting of the Thames Valley Golf Course.

Led by fourth year nursing student Kristen Mrozewski (44th - 32:54), the Voyageurs girls finished with 231 points, edging out the Laurier Golden Hawks (235) to secure eighth place.

Right on the heels of the Lo-Ellen Park Secondary School graduate was teammate Angela Mozzon (46th - 33:00), followed by Sarah Booth (60th - 33:57), Abby Lanteigne (79th - 35:08) and Georgia Lepage (85th - 35:53), all of whom scored for L.U.

Rounding out their women's race lineup in London were Sudbury native Charlotte Grenier (99th - 37:18) and Ariel Gibbons (109th - 40:08) from Renfrew.

The Laurentian men overcame the absence of their top runner (Keon Wallingford) due to injury, squeezing all five counting members between 68th place and # 104 in a field of 135 athletes.

Perhaps most encouraging is that just one of their top five is in his senior years of studies (4th or 5th), as Brandon Radey (3rd year - 68th - 28:22), Patrick Leroux (4th year - 75th - 28:35), Owen Roney (2nd year - 81st - 28:52), Travis Annett (3rd year - 103rd - 29:55) and freshman TJ Green (104th - 30:02) helped Laurentian to a 9th place team finish.

Also racing for the L.U. men were Renato Zegarra (115th - 30:41), Alan Wilkin (128th - 32:27) and Patrick Wiss (131st - 33:47).

"The temperature jumped to around 30 degrees Celsius by the time the women raced today, so I was pleased with how we managed the heat", noted Vees head coach Darren Jermyn. "Despite the warm temperatures, several of our veterans ran to new lifetime bests on this course."

"That's a good indication of our current fitness", he added. "Both squads are ahead of where they were last year so we'll look to build upon that as the season continues."

The Voyageurs return to action next weekend, tackling a six kilometres circuit at the Don Mills Open at the University of Waterloo.