LARAMIE, Wyo. – Following an impressive second-place team finish at the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational this weekend, four Wyoming Cowboy harriers are ranked among the top 255 runners in the nation by FloTrack. The 255 runners represents the amount of athletes that compete at the NCAA Cross Country National Championship.
 
"This last meet at Notre Dame, they competed hard," men's cross country coach Scott Dahlberg said. "They stepped up to some really good competition. They were focused on trying to stay with that front group as long as they could. At the end of it, the results fell. These guys are still hungry for some more, and we're going to try to get a few more guys on the tail end of that pack to hold on for a little longer. In two weeks at Pre-Nationals, we should have a tighter pack with a few more guys in there."
 
Paul Roberts, a junior from Lyons, Colo., is ranked No. 24 nationally by FloTrack, and is the highest Mountain West athlete on the list. Last weekend, Roberts was just 1.7 seconds off Joe Piane race winner Connor McMillan, a 2017 All-American cross country runner from the No. 2-ranked team in the Country, BYU. Roberts also improved his per-mile pace to 4:44.9 over the five-mile course in South Bend, Ind., following a 4:52.1 season-opening pace at the Wyoming Invite in Cheyenne.
 
Junior Christopher Henry checks in at No. 89 following a top-10 finish at the Notre Dame Invitational. It was his second top-10 finish in as many races, as the Laramie High School product placed fifth at the season-opening Wyoming Invitational. Henry was Wyoming's top finisher in all but one race last season, and has continued his consistency this fall.
 
Junior Harry Ewing comes in at No. 171 on FloTrack's rankings after placing 20^th at the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational. Ewing surged into the cross country season following a 15^th place finish in the steeplechase at the 2018 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field West Preliminaries, narrowly missing a trip to the national championships. He has been UW's third finisher in both meets this fall, finishing in the top 20 both times.
 
Junior Daniel Hintz is ranked No. 204 following his 28^th place finish at the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational last weekend. Hintz recorded a per-mile pace last weekend that was more than 20 seconds faster than his season-opening pace in Cheyenne.
 
Wyoming posted a team upset of then-No. 28 Furman, who finished fourth at the invitational behind No. 2 BYU, the Cowboys and the host-squad, Notre Dame.

The Cowboys return to action next week, as they will run at the Wisconsin-hosted Pre-Nationals on Saturday, Oct. 13.