MACOMB, Ill. - Webster University opened its 2019 men's cross country season here Friday evening by placing third out of four teams as the WIU Early Bird Invitational hosted by Western Illinois University and held at Spring Lake Park.

At the event, the Gorloks were paced by the performance of freshman Cameron Sakuma (O'Fallon, Mo./Fort Zumwalt West), who ran a time of 20:31.5 to place seventh overall.

As a team, Webster scored a total of 63 points to finish in third place and they were 12 points behind second place Western Illinois (51 points) and were 41 points in front of fourth place Carl Sandburg College (104 points).

Bradley, who finished 24th at last year's NCAA Division I National Championships, had six runners place in the Top 8, including Bradley have all five Top 5 finishers en route to scoring a total of 15 points.

In addition to Sakuma, sophomore Javier Cervantes (Garden City, Kan./Garden City) placed 11th with a 6K time of 20:50.8, while sophomore Eli Guzman (Parkville, Mo./Park Hill South) was 13th with a personal best 6K time of 21:18.5 and freshman Kaelin Triggs (St. Louis, Mo./Mehlville) was 15th with a time of 21:24 in his first collegiate meet. 

Freshman Sam Baker (Memphis, Tenn./Saint Benedict at Auburndale) was 17th with a time of 22:15.1 and senior Abram Donovan (St. Paul, Minn./Highland Park) ran a time of 22:37.2 to place 18th overall. The final scorer for the Gorloks was freshman Christian Gray (St. Louis, Mo./Webster Groves), who posted a 6K time of 23:28.2 to place 23rd overall in his first collegiate meet. 

The final finisher for the Gorloks was senior Paul Mueller (Red Bud, Ill./Red Bud), who ran a time of 24:11.5 to finish in 24th place overall.