What the Laurentian Voyageurs cross-country teams might lack in star power, they more than make up for with overall depth of talent, that ability on both the men's and women's lineup to group several scoring athletes closely together in time and placement.

And with very young rosters on both sides of the equation, there is plenty of reason for optimism, with the team goals coming more into focus as the Voyageurs competed at the 51st annual Vigars & Salter Western Invitational hosted in London on Saturday.

"Both of our teams shaved 40 points from their score over the second half of the race, which indicates our young squad is executing well and responding to our training plan," noted Laurentian head coach Darren Jermyn, as both squads finished eighth in the fields.,/p>

"We definitely have some work to do to reach our goal of placing both squads in the top seven teams at the OUA championships at the end of October - but we are definitely headed in the right direction."

The top of the L.U. men's bracket could not have been much closer as sophomore Braeden Estabrooks and freshman Natnael Mulugeta both crossed the line in a time of 26:37, with Estabrooks finishing 47th and Mulugeta in 48th.

The L.U. top five would be separated by a little over a minute, with Christian Myers (26:52 - 53rd), Owen McDougall (27:26 - 67th) and T.J. Green (27:48 - 75th) all part of the Voyageurs total of 290 points, just five points back of Memorial University from Newfoundland.

The top to bottom gap with the local women was even more tight as senior transfer Kylee Fowler (33:11 - 51st) led a scoring quintet that also featured Charlie Borak (33:30 - 59th), Misaki Diavolitsis (33:34 - 60th), Georgia Lepage (33:39 - 62nd) and Makenzie Bailey (33:58 - 68th).

With a total of 291 points to their credit, the Laurentian women were somewhat on their own, well back of the seventh place University of Toronto Varsity Blues (160 points) but comfortably ahead of the Nipissing Lakers (366).

The Voyageurs are back racing again next weekend, part of the programs who will be taking part in the Don Mills Open at the University of Waterloo.

Following are the team scores for both genders:

Men - Team Results
1st - McMaster – 25 points
2nd - Western – 54 points
3rd - Guelph – 96 points
4th - Windsor – 118 points
5th - Toronto – 211 points
6th - Waterloo – 247 points
7th - Memorial – 285 points
8th - Laurentian – 290 points
9th - York - 343 points
10th - Wilfrid Laurier – 454 points
11th - Toronto Metropolitan (TMU) – 509 points
12th - Nipissing – 516 points

Women - Team Results
1st - Windsor – 49 points
2nd - McMaster – 59 points
3rd - Guelph – 76 points
4th - New Brunswick – 118 points
5th - Western – 126 points
6th - Memorial – 143 points
7th - Toronto – 160 points
8th - Laurentian – 291 points
9th - Nipissing – 366 points
10th - Laurier – 387 points