DENTON – Matthew Morgan took third place at the Ken Garland Invitational with a time of 20:35.10 to lead the Mean Green men's cross country team to a first place finish in the four-mile race, while Aubrey Schmidt finished fourth individually, clocking in at 19:05.31 as the women finished third as a team at UNT Discovery Park.
 
The men claimed the top spot with 26 points followed closely by UT Arlington at 29. The women tallied 68 points trailing UT Arlington at 55 and SMU at 53.
 
North Texas held half of the top-10 spots on the men's side with finishers three through six wearing green. The women finished with three runners in the top-15.
 
"I thought it was a good first meet for us," Head Coach Kevin Williams said. "We used this as a measuring stick since we haven't had many practices coming off the summer, now we know where we are and we'll be able to move forward with training."
 
"I just stayed consistent this summer, really focused on the small things." Morgan said. "I just tried to focus on me and what I could do and not anything else."
 
"It was a little rough today," Schmidt said. "I was just trying to shake the dust off but it was really good to be out here with my teammates again."
 
The Mean Green will be back in action September 14 when they travel to Arlington to compete in the Gerald Richey Invitational hosted by UT Arlington.