FAYETTEVILLE, Arkansas -- Matt Perri finished 70th and Maximo Mendoza was 79th Saturday as Houston Baptist University's men's cross country team placed 23rd Saturday at the 22nd Annual Chile Pepper Festival. Running in one of the nation's largest collegiate events, the Huskies finished in the top half of the 50-team field.

Perri clocked 31:13 over the 10-kilometer course that featured rolling hills, while Mendoza crossed the line at 31:23. The other HBU men finishing in scoring positions in the 470-runner field were freshman Anthony Aguinaga (151st/32:21), Sid Makhunga (239th/33:20) and freshman Ulysses Montoya (313th/34:13). The Huskies scored 673 points and beat 27 teams, including LSU, Houston and UT-Arlington.

HBU's women finished 36th in a 56-team race with 1,083 points, again led by freshman Jessica Whitt. Whitt covered the 5K course in 18:52 to place 157th in the 469-runner field. The rest of the Huskies' top five was freshman Shelby Jones (213th/19:16), Halcie Pfeiffer (274th/19:40), Emily Shulik (300th/19:52) and Angela Rojas (303rd/19:54).

Oklahoma State dominated the men's race with a 1-2-3-4 individual finish, topped by winner Colby Lowe, while their women's team eked out a four-point win over Indiana, which had the individual champion in Sarah Pease.

HBU closes out the season in two weeks at the Great West Conference Championships in Edinburg. For more information on the Chile Pepper meet, visit www.chilepepperfestival.org.