St. Lawrence University senior John Johnston led the nationally-ranked No. 6 men's cross country team to a 31st place finish in the gold race at the 2011 Paul Short Invitational on Friday in Bethlehem, PA.

The Scarlet and Brown were one of three Division III schools entered in the multi-divisional gold race, comprised mainly of Division I institutions. The Saints knocked off schools including Mississippi State, Richmond, the University of Tennessee, Bucknell, the University of Vermont and Temple.

Johnston was the top St. Lawrence finisher in the race with a time of 25:21, landing in 70th place overall out of 402 competitors. Junior Sam Rakoc also had a solid finish in 121st place in 25:42.

Senior Steve Kiplagat, sophomore Brendan Courneene and senior Alex Calderwood rounded out the St. Lawrence scoring. First-year student Aaron Tompkins and sophomore Zach Nelson also represented the Saints on Friday in the 8k race.

The University of Oklahoma won the men's team title in the gold race with an impressive 34 points, well ahead of other top-5 finishers Georgetown, Columbia, Villanova and Syracuse. Paul Chelimo of the University of North Carolina Greensboro won the race with a time of 23:55.

The Saints will be in action again next weekend when they host the 2011 Hoffman Invitational/Pre-Regional at the Ronald C. Hoffman cross country course. The event begins at 11:00am on Saturday, October 8