FAYETTEVILLE – North Texas cross country was back in action Saturday at the 31^st annual Chile Pepper Cross Country Festival hosted by the University of Arkansas.
 
In a field of 32 men's teams North Texas came away with an 18^th place finish as a team paced by senior Florian Lussy.
 
Lussy, running in his first meet of the 2019 season finished the 8K race 30^th individually out of 304 runners with a time of 24:35.4.
 
"Not our best day," head coach Kevin Williams said. "We are struggling with a lot of injuries on the men's side right now and really relying on the freshmen."
 
The North Texas freshman trio of Braden Lange (25:45.5), Mason Garner (26:55.9) and Riley Wood (27:14.8) finished 124^th, 231^st and 250^th respectively as individuals.
 
"It was a tough outing, but we have a month to correct our mistakes before conference." Williams added.
 
The North Texas women finished 22^nd as a team out of a field of 27.
 
Sophomore Aubrey Schmidt led the way for the women finishing 112^th individually out of 266 runners with a time of 18:32.2 in the 5K race.
 
"Again just a tough day for us," Williams said. "We are going to need to find some consistency in these next few weeks and get everyone firing at the same time."
 
North Texas will be back in action October 12 when they head to College Station for the Arturo Barrios Invite hosted by Texas A&M.