Loyola hosted the Third Annual Allstate Sugar Bowl Cross Country Festival this Saturday at Lafreniere Park in Metairie. The event included 13 different universities from across the state, as well as 11 high schools and middle schools to compete in a 5 km race around the park.

The team performed well, finishing runner-up in their division, second only to Tulane University.

Walt Ramsey, environmental science freshman, finished sixth overall in the men’s division and first among Loyola runners.

“It’s still early, I think we have room to improve. The team ran strong, but I think everyone still has a lot left that they can do,” Ramsey said.

Liam Donovan, another freshman standout and environmental science major, finished with a time of 18:15 and fourth among the Loyola men’s team.

“I definitely want to work on staying together as a pack,” Donovan said. “I’m glad we’ve been recognized. Everything seems like it went smoothly.”

Although down a few players, head coach Nick Dodson felt the team performed really well and was impressed by the huge increase in performance compared to last year’s Sugar Bowl.

“If everybody completely buys into the program and what we’re trying to do the results will take care of themselves,” Dodson said. “The first thing I wanted to do was establish an identity for the team and get everybody to jump on board. So far we’ve all jumped on board and the results speak for themself.”