COLORADO SPRINGS -- Branson Bartlett and Dan Pinter broke away from the pack to lead the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs men's cross country team to a second-place finish at the Colorado College Invitational Saturday at Monument Valley Park.

Bartlett, a freshman, and Pinter, a senior, surged ahead with a group of runners that separated themselves from the main pack. Bartlett finished third among college runners with a time of 27 minutes, 46.26 seconds, while Pinter was fourth at 27:55.

"That's kind of always been our plan," said Pinter. "Branson and I have been training a lot over the last couple of weeks. We worked off of each other the entire race."

Pinter said after a smooth first mile, he and Bartlett started picking off runners one at a time. They might have picked off a couple more had Pinter not had difficulty maintaining his breathing discipline.

"I couldn't really settle into a rhythm," he said. "I finished fourth as far as college guys go, so I was pleased with that."

Host Colorado College won the race behind Julian Boggs and Alex Nichols, who were first and second respectively among college runners.

There were a number of unattached runners competing alone or for company teams like The Boulder Running Company and Runners Roost. Unattached runners took the top four spots and nine of the top 11.

The Mountain Lions beat Regis, Northern Colorado, Garden City Community College and Panhandle State largely because the team's main pack, including Alex Tiernan, Dustin Simoens, Joe Kienitz, Gabe Small and Carlos Ruibal all manage to finish between eighth and 19th. That kind of pack running is what makes for a successful cross country program.

"It helps to have a buddy there motivating you," said Kienitz. "Dustin definitely pulled me though to the very end."