London, ON – The Mustangs Cross Country team kicked off their 2025 season on Saturday morning as they hosted the Vigars & Salter Western Invitational at Thames Valley Golf Course.

The Mustangs Men's team finished with a 2^nd place team finish, while the Women's team finished 5^th.

The day started with the Women's race, with a largely new look Mustangs squad, after graduating several members of the U SPORTS Championship team from 2024. Add in some injuries to those returning, and that opened up some big opportunities at the first meet of the season.



"We have a lot of 1st years, and probably half the team running this year were 1st years. We also had three of our potential top 5 not racing today, one with a slight injury from slipping down stairs earlier in the fall, one that just had emergency surgery a week ago and then a couple who ran until mid-August, so we're just throwing them into the season." said Mustangs Head Coach Guy Schultz "All in all, the team ran really well, really proud of everyone. They went out there and worked for 8km, and the goal today was to figure out where they are fitness-wise, and to get to experience, so we're really happy with the result."

The Mustangs top five runners on the day were Victoria Lamb (3rd), Clara Fava (24th), Erika Gordon (31st), Zaira Chaudhry (43rd) & Claire Hickey (44th).

"Victoria is doing her Master's, and she came to us from McMaster. She ran really well for us today. We had a few standouts on the returning athletes, like Veronica (Boyle) and Claire, who improved by over 2 or 3 minutes from last year."

The Men's race followed shortly after the conclusion of the women's race, and from the opening gun, Western was running with purpose.



 "A lot of people stepped up today, I think we had four or five 1st years in the in the race as well, and then getting a feel for the first 8K ever," said Schultz "Just seeing them kind of bond together in the race and work together in the middle and especially a couple of them really finishing hard at the end of the race, which probably helped us get our 2nd place overall."

Western finished with 72 points in the 2nd place team standings. The scoring five runners were Robin Faricier(6th), Liam Smith (8th), Satveer Gill (14th), Saurang Puthenkulangara (21st) & Owen Parkes (23rd).

"Robin finished 46th last year and finished 6th today, beating his time by over 2 minutes. Liam (Smith), who was our second-place finisher, was 8th. He didn't even run this race last year because he was a bit injured. So those two definitely stepped it up today, and then a bunch of the 1st year stepped it up as well."
Now that the season has begun, the coaches and student athletes have a busy next month and a half as they prepare for the OUA Championship in late October and the U SPORTS Championship in early November.

"It's always hard when you have your first race and you think maybe we could have done this better, maybe we could have done that better, but I think when we're thinking about the big picture," said Schultz "I think we're right where we want to be, and the goal is to peak at the end of October and going into nationals."

There are two meets on the Mustangs schedule before they get to banner season. They head to South Bend, Indiana, on Oct. 3 for the Joe Piane – Notre Dame Invitational and then to Bayfront Park in Hamilton on October 10.

Team Standings

Women's Race

Place	Team	Score
1	St. FX	48
2	Windsor	71
3	McMaster	82
4	Guelph	95
5	Western	145
6	Toronto	151
7	UNB	152
8	Waterloo	201
9	Laurier	249
10	York	301
11	Laurentian	309

For full race details CLICK HERE

Men's Race

Place	Team	Score
1	McMaster	34
2	Western	72
3	Windsor	78
4	Guelph	83
5	St. FX	134
6	Toronto	187
7	UNB	190
8	Laurentian	232
9	Waterloo	240
10	Laurier	271
11	Nipissing	310
12	York	321

For full race details CLICK HERE