The Western Kentucky cross country team closed out competition at the Commodore Classic on Friday at Percy Warner Park in Nashville.

The women’s and men’s squads earned eighth-place finishes in their respective races. The women recorded an average time of 19:02.0 in the 5K, while the men averaged a 27:24.0 in the 8K.

“Today’s meet was a chance to give more athletes an opportunity to compete and see where they are while resting some of our younger runners,” WKU cross country head coach Brooks LeCompte said in a news release. “The men honestly felt a little flat today and it showed in the results, but they will be just fine.

“The women, on the other hand, had a pretty solid showing despite us sitting two runners who were in our top five at Memphis. We had multiple (personal records) and a few season-bests, led again by Savannah Heckman, along with a big performance from sophomore Lucy Rutherford. Rory O’Connor is still building up her fitness from a summer injury, so to see her drop 26 seconds off her Memphis race shows we are heading in the right direction. I couldn’t be more proud of them all. We will be back at full strength in two weeks for Louisville.”

The women’s squad was led by Heckman and Rutherford, who posted PRs for the second time in as many meets. Heckman finished 13th with a time of 17:42.5, while Rutherford placed 29th with a mark of 18:12.6.

Kentucky finished first in the women’s standings of the 11-team event, led by a first-place individual finish from freshman Tori Herman.

On the men’s side, Clint Sherman paced WKU after returning from injury following the team’s season opener at Memphis. Sherman finished 39th out of nearly 100 runners, recording a time of 26:01.7 in the 8K.

Middle Tennessee was the top team on the men’s side after a tiebreaker with Kentucky. Kentucky’s Andre Bollam-Godbott was the individual winner in the men’s race.

WKU women’s results

8th – Team – 19:02.0 avg.

13th – Savannah Heckman – 17:42.5 (PR)

29th – Lucy Rutherford – 18:12.6 (PR)

55th – Rory O’Connor – 19:07.9

69th – Sarah Wilkinson – 19:56.8

72nd – Maddy Hurt – 20:09.6 (PR)

74th – Jenna Vaughn – 20:23.2

84th – Abigail Green – 21:28.5 (PR)

87th – Madeline Powell – 21:53.5

88th – Heather Whitlow – 22:41.4

WKU men’s results

8th – Team – 27:24.0 avg.

39th – Clint Sherman – 26:01.7

62nd – Keegan Barnette – 27:15.5

63rd – Dedrick Troxell – 27:17.1

72nd – Will Perrone – 28:08.0

74th – Miles Huff – 28:14.9

WKU will be back in action when it heads to Louisville for the Live in Lou Classic on Oct. 2.