September 6, 2003 – In the first meet of the 2003 season, the Morehouse College cross country team picked up where it left off last year – running away from the competition. Winners of the last eight SIAC championships, the Flying Maroon Tigers scored a resounding victory in the Morehouse College Invitational, a five-team meet, held September 6, in Atlanta’s Mozley Park.

With the decisive victory in the season opener, the Flying Tigers are serving notice that they are again the team to beat in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and intend to serve up a steady diet of dust in upcoming meets.

Morehouse runners crossed the finish line second through seventh, for a winning score of 20 points. Clark Atlanta University finished second with 89 points, Benedict College finished third with 91 points, Paine College finished fourth with 106 points and Fort Valley State University finished fifth with 150 points.

Cross country scoring is tabulated by adding the order of finish of the first five runners of each team. For example, the Morehouse runners finished in positions 2,3,4,5 and 6, which total 20 points.

Morehouse was led by junior Hillary Kibet. The junior runner, from Ndanai, Kenya, covered the eight-kilometer course in 29:13. He was followed closely to the finish line by Alex Brickler (29:49), Harold Whack (30:06), Edmond Dixon (30:06), Donald Cook (30:18) and William Gravely (30:23). All of the Morehouse runners finished in the top 25 of the race that featured 45 athletes. Darius Edwards (34:00) finished in the 11 spot, followed by Mark Washington (37:02) at number 21 and Brett Lewis (37:21) at number 25.

The Flying Maroon Tigers will compete next in the University of Alabama-Huntsville Invitational, Saturday, September 13, in Huntsville.