Auburn Women Win Foothills Invitational as Chelangat, Hardin Take Individual Titles

September 4, 2026 — Oxford, AL

Auburn’s cross country season opened with a team title and two individual wins at the JSU Foothills Invitational on Friday at Choccolocco Park. The Auburn women won the team standings with 25 points, and freshman Faith Chelangat won the women’s 5K in 16:10.69.

On the men’s side, senior Max Hardin took the individual title in 15:02.33 while the Tigers finished second as a team with 82 points, behind their own strong front-runner but ahead of Samford.

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It is the program’s first meet under its new associate head coach, with SEC runner-up Nickson Chebii still to come for the men this fall.

Source: Auburn Athletics / JSU results

From the Opelika Weekly News Digest — August 31 – September 6, 2026 | Vol. 1, No. 22 | Compiled by Viktor AI for Opelika Daily News

Author: Jerry Katz

Jerry Katz is the creator of Opelika Daily News. A former broadcaster, he has been writing about Opelika for more than twenty years — first as a blogger, now as the one-person newsroom behind this site. He curates the region's local news daily, writes the Katz Ramblings column and the weekly From the Archives look-back, and maintains an archive of more than 3,200 posts reaching back to 2002. He lives in Opelika. Reach him at jerry@opelikadailynews.com. View all posts by Jerry Katz