Panthersville, Georgia - Even without All-American Joseph Mutai, the Owls long legacy of dominance continued on Saturday morning as Jason Waters finished in first place in the Non-Division I race at the 32nd Annual GSU Invitational.

Waters (26:10.57) led a trio of KSU runners that finished in the top seven. Peter Kaszkur (5th-26:57.08) and Landon Taylor (7th- 27:06.69) helped pace the Owls to a third place finish.

The Owls (8-2), running without three of their top runners, looked to be in position to win the event as their strong top three runners held a six position lead over Berry and a seven point advantage over eventual winner Emory. However, a tenth place finish by Emory's Kile Krol and a 13th place finish by Berry's Ryan McClay trimmed into the Owls lead and a final point result from 28th place was too far back for the Owls to gain back ground.

"We didn't have three key runners," said head coach Stan Sims. "Joseph (Mutai) is the No. 4-ranked runner in the country and without Ken (Kennedy Kitur) and Lukasz (Skrzypiec) it was difficult."

Mutai missed the race with back spasms while Skrzypiec did not run due to a sinus infection. Kitur (flu) did not travel with the squad.

"If we have our full squad healthy," Sims added. "Well then, things would have been quite different."

Kennesaw State Results
1 Waters, Jason 5:16.0
5 Kaszkur, Peter 5:25.3
7 Taylor, Landon 5:27.3
8 Mokaya, Albert 5:39.6
31 Chelimo, Alfonce 5:48.1
47 Walsh, Shane 6:10.9.

Non-Division 1 Results
1 Emory (54)
2 Berry (55)
3 Kennesaw State (59)
4 Clayton State (99)
5 Morehouse (105)
6 GC&SU (172)
7 Reinhardt (181)
8 SCAD (206)
9 Georgia Military (261)
10 LaGrange (286)
11 Southern Union (338).