JOPLIN, Mo. – Oklahoma City University saw success in the Missouri Southern Stampede, taking the college/JUCO division Saturday at the Tom Rutledge Cross Country Course. 

OCU, ranked eighth in NAIA men's cross country, turned in a meet-best 37 points. Stars grabbed three spots among the top five individually. Cowley (Kan.) was in second with a point total of 70. 

Shimales Abebe had the best finish among the Stars at second place in the 8,000-meter race with a time of 24 minutes, 7.98 seconds. Halen Biggs finished third with a time of 25:23.55, and David Boulanger finished fourth with a time of 25:38.67. 

Other Oklahoma City finishers were Milan Todorovic in 12th (26:22.66) and Brendan Robeaux in 16th (26:25.34). Fares Marrouf, Pedro Becerra and Joseph Engel finished 22nd, 23rd and 24th with times of 26:44.61, 26:45.53 and 26:51.62, respectively. 

Lastly for OCU was Beckham Hartis finishing in 41st (27:35.00), Aiden Hoover in 42nd with a time of 27:35.92 and Paul Welch finishing with a total time of 27:54.86. Tanner Huffman was the final finisher for OCU with a time of 29:11.28. 

The Stars next race is the historic Chile Pepper Festival on Sept. 30 in Fayetteville, Ark.