ST. CATHARINES, Ont. - The Sheridan Bruins cross country teams posted a pair of third place finishes at a meet hosted by Brock University, their final event before the OCAA Championships next weekend at Fanshawe. 

"The women ran a really fast, tough race today," head coach Danny Webster said. "In comparison to last year, all of them were much faster, so we're looking good heading into next week. On the men's side we got Garrett Murphy back today injury-free, so that really helped our team score out."

The women were third with 60 points, trailing Laurier (31 points), and Trent (51 points), but ahead of Laurier Brantford (85 points). 

Erin Kinninmont finished sixth with a time of 21:06.6, followed by Marla Brown (10th), Monique Parlevliet (12th), Alexandra D'Oliveira (15th), Daniella Casas (17th), Isabell Cateli (19th), and Amanda Zimmerman (20th).

The men were also third with 65 points, trailing Brock (44 points) and Waterloo (47 points), but better than Laurier (72 points), and Laurier Brantford (127 points).

Cole Bond paced the team with a ninth place finish (23.43.2) and was followed by Garrett Murphy (19th), Matt Reeve (21st), Brendan Saunders (28th), Andrew Convery (32nd), and Alex Ball (34th).

Although the event was a smaller field than they have faced or will face at next weekend's championship runs, Webster says it was a good experience that he hopes pays dividends when medals are on the line.

"We're really fit and I think this is a really good confidence booster coming in third place, competing against OUA teams as well," he said.