Run for fun? Hardly. When the Saint Louis University men’s and women’s cross country teams traveled down to the Conference USA Tournament in the heart of Dixie, in Hattiesburg, Miss., they took with them a workman-like attitude and a desire to compete, and compete hard.And that’s exactly what they did.

“Unfortunately we are financially disadvantaged. We are the only team competing in Conference USA that doesn’t have a track team and we also have the fewest number of scholarships in the conference. Still, we ran hard and did our best,” said sophomore Patrick Henchy.

Despite this disadvantage, though, both the men’s and women’s teams fared well. The women’s team placed 12th, just one point behind the host team from Southern Miss.

The top individual finisher was senior Aimee Walker, who finished 32nd with a time of 27:01.14. Junior Janelle Decker was the next Bills finisher, coming in with a time of 24:03.33.

Senior Megan Irwin and sophomores Sara Mobers and Reilly DeSantis rounded out the Bills top 5 finishers.

In the men’s meet, sophomore Joe Porter led the Bills assault, placing 45th in the 10K race with a time of 27:01.14.

Fellow sophomore Pat Henchy came in 51st with a time of 27:12.02 and freshman Mike Isaac finished just three spots behind Henchy with a time of 27:24.15. Senior Mike McCaslin and sophomore Joel Rollings were the two other top Bills finishers. The team wound up coming in 12th place.

“We ran well, and as it happened, there were only 18 points separating us and the three teams that finished right ahead of us,” Henchy said.

In two weekends, the team will hit the road again, this time for the Midwest Regional meet at Illinois State University.

“We are a young team. Right now we are just running as best we can and gaining experience for later on,” Henchy said.