The Arizona women’s cross country team finished first and men’s cross country team finished third place at the George Kyte Classic in Flagstaff, Ariz., on Saturday to open the season.

Kayla Beattie and Maria Larsson finished 1-2 in the women’s meet. Beattie, a sophomore transfer from Iowa, finished with a time of 16:47.2 in the 2.96 mile run while Larsson, a freshman, finished with a time of 16:52.4 for second place.

The rest of the women’s team fell behind in the rankings, ranging from eighth place to 26th place finishers overall.

The UA women won with 33 points, NAU totaled 36 points for a second place win, ASU took third place with 51 points and Grand Canyon University finished in fourth with 115 points.

“If we want to be as good as we were last year, and I think we are capable of being even better than last year, we need to have our fifth runners close the gap and improve,” head coach James Li said. “At the end of the day, I think we will have a really good team. Overall, it was a positive day.”

For the men’s team, the first to finish was freshman Collins Kibet, who earned the fourth place finish overall with a time of 25:01.2 in the 4.96 mile run. Coming in second for the Wildcats was freshman Matthew Beer, who finished in 15th place overall with a time of 26:28.6.

The rest of the men’s team came in shortly behind 19th or in the 20s.

NAU’s men won the meet with 25 points, ASU took second place with 40 points, Arizona was third with 73 points and Grand Canyon University finished with 120 points and took fourth place overall.

“The guys look like they have some work to do,” Li said.

Up next for the Wildcats is their home meet, the Dave Murray Invitational Sept. 20, at 4 p.m.

—Follow Makenzie Thiel @makenziethiel