POWELL, Ohio -- Two Shawnee State men's cross country runners set personal best times Friday evening at the Ohio Wesleyan Invitational as Garrett Carver and Luke Butler each set their collegiate PRs in an SSU uniform while Jacob Naumovski joined Carver in beating out more than 90 runners individually in a men's 8,000-meter race that was held at Liberty Park in Powell, Ohio.
Carver, who not only set a personal best time but led all Shawnee State runners who ran on Friday, finished 115th overall in a field of 246 runners by posting a 28:15.6. That mark betters Carver's previous personal standard of 28:32.3, which Carver set back in 2023 when he was still with Ohio Christian, by nearly 17 full seconds.
Naumovski, who finished 152nd overall, ran a 28:54.6 to join Carver inside the 29-minute bracket, while Butler, who ran a 29:06.7, set a new personal best 8K time for the second consecutive meet that the sophomore participated in after running a 29:13.7 at the Indiana Wesleyan Twilight Meet back on Sept. 6. Butler finished in 160th place.
Following the trio, Malachi Shugert's 29:48.3 led to a 189th place outcome, while Walker Pannell's 30:09.3 put the freshman in 200th place and Jared Flowers' 30:16.8 resulted in a 202nd place showing for the junior.
Shawnee State will have Isaiah Lanoy, Kaiden Lanoy, Trevor Lanoy, Dylan French, Aidan Judd, Jerry O'Dell, Connor Darnell and Caden LaRue participating in the Live in Lou 8K Men's Gold race, which is stacked with elite runners from all levels including NCAA Division I participants from Clemson, Michigan and South Carolina, among others, Saturday morning at 9:45 a.m.
