FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - In the final meet before the postseason, both the men's and women's Virginia Tech cross country teams earned third place at the Chile Pepper Invitational on Saturday in Fayetteville, Ark. The Hokie women earned 130 points and the men registered 162 points in their last competition before the Atlantic Coast Conference Championships.

The No. 19 Hokies finished third out of 41 teams with 130 points in the standings of the 6k women's race, behind runner-up No. 5 Arkansas' 87 points and No. 24 Texas Tech took the event title with 83 points. Tech finished ahead of UC Irvine, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas A&M, Richmond, Utah and James Madison in the top 10.

Senior Natalie Sherbak was Tech's highest finisher for the first time this season with a season-best 6k time of 20:56 for fifth place. Sherbak was immediately followed by Tasmin Fanning in sixth place with a 20:57 time, then Kelly Clark finished in 21:51 for 27^th overall and Erin Reddan came in 43^rd in 22:12. Jessica Fanning completed the Hokies' scoring with a 22:17 time for 49^th.

The men's team is fifth in the Southeast Region and placed third among 36 teams. Abilene Christian was the runner-up with 74 points and No. 9 Arkansas won its host event with 47 points. Rend Lake College, Texas A&M, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Auburn, Texas Tech, Richmond and LSU rounded out the top 10.

In the team's longest race so far this season, sophomore Devin Cornwall led Tech for the second consecutive meet. Cornwall earned a 30:57 time in the 10k race to earn 23^rd place. Billy Berlin finished in 26^th place with a 31:09 effort, followed by James Scheiner's 31:22 time for 32^nd. Paul LaPenna and Matt Kroetch rounded out Tech's scoring. LaPenna came in 38^th place at 31:42, and Kroetch was 43 rd at 31:50.

The ACC Championships will begin at 10 a.m. on Oct. 27. The University of Virginia will host the meet on its Panorama Farms course.