Early rain threatened to ruin the course, but the track held together for the MSU men’s and women’s cross country teams to host the 12th annual Spartan Invitational on Friday at Forest Akers East Golf Course.

The women competed well against the field of 12 teams - which was open to the public for the first time - and took four of the top five spots.

The men struggled against strong competition from Hanson’s Running Shop, a professional racing team from Metro Detroit. MSU’s top finisher came in fourth overall.

But the squads managed enough top finishes to place first overall in both the men’s and women’s collegiate standings.

MSU’s solid finish in the women’s event came as a pleasant surprise to Angela Goodman, director of women’s cross country. She had been in China earlier this year, preventing her from watching the team.

“This is the first time I’ve been able to see them race,” she said. “But they’ve been in good hands ... We have a real young team, but that’s a good thing.”

Despite that youth, it was senior Ann Somerville leading the team, finishing first overall with a time of 17:43.30.

“I wanted to work on staying relaxed,” Somerville said. “I’ve been working on being a good leader and just running hard, running smooth.”

And although the top MSU men’s runner finished fourth overall, he was the top collegiate runner. Junior Ben Evans took fourth with a time of 24:37.80, about 30 seconds behind the leader and six-tenths of a second behind the third place finisher.

Jeff Campbell, from Hanson’s Running, placed first overall, going 24:16.60.

“For the men, the competition was much tougher. Hanson’s (Running Shop) is a national caliber team,” head coach Jim Stintzi said. “We just wanted to compete with Eastern Michigan. I think we did a pretty good job.”

Eastern’s top runner, Gavin Thompson, came in fifth, only two seconds behind Evans at 24:39.20. Sophomore Andy Marsh came in seventh, at 24:43.80. MSU’s freshman standout Chris Toloff trailed the collegiate leaders, coming in at 24:47, placing ninth overall and fifth among collegiate runners.

“This was a big race for Ben,” Stintzi said. “The last couple of seasons he’s developed as the season went along. We needed him to be a leader early in the season.”

Evans was pleased with his performance in the face of some strong competition.

“We knew Eastern and Hanson’s would be good. I’m real happy with my performance,” he said.

But not everyone was quite as satisfied.

Sophomore Jason Mueller finished ninth among collegiate runners and 17th overall.

“I expected to be one of the top two runners,” he said. “I don’t mind if I’m the No. 5 guy if I’ve got four strong guys ahead of me.”

Early in the day, the weather threatened to be a factor but it let up in time to allow for a good race.

MSU’s next meet for both teams is the Roy Griak Invitational on Saturday at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

“At least 15 to 20 of the top 30 schools will be there,” Stintzi said. “It will be a huge test.”