Queen City men’s 8K: Lenoir-Rhyne fifth; UVA Wise ahead of Wingate

Executive brief

Lenoir-Rhyne led the covered South Atlantic Conference schools at the Queen City Invite men’s 8K on September 11, finishing fifth with 154 points. UVA Wise placed 12th with 361, and Wingate was 16th with 413. The official team standings classified 25 teams. Charlotte won with 41 points, three ahead of North Florida, while Marshall completed the leading three with 138. [1]

Danny Nugent’s eighth-place finish in 25:09.7 gave Lenoir-Rhyne its leading individual result. Dylan Colander led UVA Wise in 26:10.9, placing 37th, and Rodrigo Najera Alvarez led Wingate in 26:52.0, placing 58th. All three covered teams had five timed scorers and at least two additional runners assigned scoring positions in the official results. [1]

Official results

The Bears finished five points behind fourth-place Elon and 17 ahead of sixth-place Fayetteville State. Those margins locate Lenoir-Rhyne within the final standings; they do not establish when places changed during the race. UVA Wise finished 207 points behind the Bears but 52 ahead of Wingate. The complete team table below preserves both classified teams and the teams listed without a completed team score. [1]

Individual winner Aaron Alukunyang of North Carolina Central ran 24:08.0. His team is listed DNF in the team results, while his individual result is a completed first-place finish. A team’s DNF label therefore must not be applied automatically to each athlete. Likewise, overall finish places differ from scoring places: Nugent was eighth overall but contributed seven points to Lenoir-Rhyne. [1]

Performance analysis

Lenoir-Rhyne placed two scorers inside the first 21 scoring positions: Nugent at seven and Preston Sangely at 21. Its remaining scoring positions were 39, 41 and 46. Craig Allard Jr, Elijah Baker and Owen Speed finished between 26:34.3 and 26:51.7, a span of 17.4 seconds across the team’s third through fifth scorers. That close finishing interval helped limit the distance between those scoring positions without proving anything about their earlier race formation. [1]

UVA Wise scored through positions 31, 59, 87, 91 and 93. The team’s third through fifth scorers finished within 15.5 seconds of one another, from Evan Riley’s 28:01.2 to Caleb Ghammashi’s 28:16.7. Its larger internal separation came earlier: Colander finished 58.7 seconds ahead of Patton Shortt, who finished 51.6 seconds ahead of Riley. These are finish-time gaps, not split-by-split evidence. [1]

Wingate’s first five scoring positions were 47, 69, 90, 102 and 105. UVA Wise’s corresponding runners finished ahead at every scoring slot, by 16, 10, three, 11 and 12 points. Those differences sum to the 52-point team margin. Wingate nevertheless had a narrower first-to-fifth time spread than UVA Wise, illustrating why a compact finishing group alone does not establish the better team score. [1]

Individual impact

For Lenoir-Rhyne, Sangely followed Nugent with 23rd overall in 25:32.3. Allard was 49th in 26:34.3, Baker 51st in 26:39.6 and Speed 57th in 26:51.7. Juan Tinajero and Sean Reed occupied the sixth and seventh scoring positions for the Bears. Chase Bryant, Heath Williams and Cooper Geib also have timed finishes. Ilias El Khattabi is listed DNF; Cristian Cabascango and Leon Fischer are DNS. [1]

UVA Wise’s five scorers were Colander, Shortt, Riley, Chad Douglas and Ghammashi. Shortt ran 27:09.6, Riley 28:01.2, Douglas 28:13.2 and Ghammashi 28:16.7. Miles Jolin and Landon Spain filled the sixth and seventh scoring positions, and Josh Sorrells also finished. Dorian Almer is listed DNS. The accompanying individual table preserves each finish place, time and scoring position. [1]

Wingate followed Najera Alvarez with Zedrick Williams in 27:27.7, Connor Schaaf in 28:10.8, Chase Nyman in 28:39.4 and Bradley Hummel in 28:47.0. Ryan Cots and Marc Brahim supplied the sixth and seventh scoring positions. Gunnar Marston, Kenton Fields and Austin Huneycutt also have timed finishes in the official table. Marcus Alloway is listed DNS, not as a timed finisher. [1]

Conference context

The supplied 2026 SAC preseason coaches poll placed Wingate first, Lenoir-Rhyne fifth and UVA Wise ninth. The covered teams finished in a different order at Queen City, but this invitational is not a conference championship or a current standings table. Its result cannot establish whether a program fielded its strongest available lineup or why a preseason favorite finished behind other conference schools. [1] [2]

Outlook

Lenoir-Rhyne’s and Wingate’s school recaps listed the Converse Kickoff on September 19 as their next scheduled event. Subsequent reporting can compare scoring depth and finishes against shared opponents, while checking differences in course, distance and field. The supplied packet does not establish UVA Wise’s next fixture. No prediction, presumed lineup change or explanation for an absent athlete is offered here. [1] [3] [4]

Scoring pack

Lenoir-Rhyne’s first five scoring positions sum to 154, UVA Wise’s to 361 and Wingate’s to 413. Their first-to-fifth finish-time spreads were 1:42.0, 2:05.8 and 1:55.0, respectively. Wingate’s spread was 10.8 seconds narrower than UVA Wise’s, despite its higher team point total. Team points depend on the scoring places of the first five runners, not simply on the time separating a team’s first and fifth finishers. [1]

Course distance and field

The men’s race covered 8,000 meters at the Larry McAfee Course at McAlpine Creek Park in Charlotte, North Carolina. The official listing has 25 classified teams, plus North Carolina Central and Johnson & Wales without completed team scores. Its individual result rows include 260 timed finishes. The count refers specifically to the official table inspected for this report; school recap counts differ, as explained below. [1]

Methodology

Results tables and scoring calculations use the official TFRRS rows. School recaps supply event corroboration and scheduled-next-meet context. Two differences remain disclosed: the recaps describe 257 finishers, whereas the inspected official table lists 260; Wingate’s recap describes 11 competitors, whereas that table contains ten timed Wingate finishes and one Wingate DNS. Eleven listed entries are not the same as eleven starters or finishers. The sources do not establish why these descriptions differ. [1] [4]

This report does not invent a missing finisher, substitute a DNS with a time or claim that a correction has been issued. Academic-year labels are omitted, and no weather, injury, race tactics, lineup strength or cross-course personal best is inferred. [1] [4]