HICKORY, N.C. — The Catawba Valley Community College showed growth on Saturday during its second meet of the season — the 2022 Winthrop/Adidas Cross Country Invitational.

All three competing Red Hawk runners improved their times from the program's first-ever meet last week in Salisbury.

"I'm proud of our young men," said Red Hawk cross country head coach Shawn Fountain. "Each runner improved his time from the last race, which is our goal — to increase speed every week until the regional championships."

Ryan Eblen paced all Red Hawk competitors with an 8K time of 35:35.4 (average mile of 7:09.5).

Catawba Valley's Preston Rutledge completed his 8K run with a time of 38:00.3 (7:38.7 mile average), and Nick Shull finished just behind Rutledge with an 8K time of 39:26.9 (7:56.1 mile average).

The Catawba Valley Community College cross country team competes in its first junior college only event next Saturday when it races at the Cleveland Community College Invitational in Shelby, N.C.