Greenville, S.C. - Sam Taylor finished in sixth place out of 127 runners at the Furman Invitational over the weekend to lead the Tennessee Tech men's cross country team to a fourth place finish in the meet. On the women's side, junior Tiffany Palmer finished 16th, and the Tech women's team took home a seventh place finish.

Taylor finished the 8K course in 27:01 and Tech's top six runners all finished in the top 40 in the field, completing the race in under 29 minutes. Chris Bishop was second on the team and 16th overall with a time of 27:50. Ben Shassere was 23rd overall with a time of 28:03, followed by Jarrad Read who finished 29th with a time of 28:21. Ben Thompson and Peter Woerner finished 39th and 40th with times of 28:55 and 28:56. The Golden Eagles took home fourth in the 15-team field, behing first-place Marshall, Furman and Berry College.

In the women's 5K event, Tiffany Palmer's 20:02 time led the Golden Eagles, and she was followed by Traci Jones who took 33rd with time of 20:50. Amanda Simmons finished the race in 21:17. Kathryn Forbes finished in 22:08 and Courtney Koehl finished in 23:03. Tech's women's team finished seventh in the 16-team field, behind Furman, UAB, Winthrop, Berry College, Marshall and Roanoke.

Tech's cross country teams will race again on Oct. 17 at the Evansville Invitational in Evansville, Ind. The Ohio Valley Conference Championships will be held Oct. 31 in Nashville, and the NCAA regional will be two weeks later in Tuscaloosa, Ala. On Nov. 14.