ETSU cross country places seventh at Virginia Tech
BLACKSBURG, Va. – Against nationally ranked competition the ETSU men’s and women’s cross country teams placed seventh at the Virginia Tech Alumni Invitational in Blacksburg, Va.
The women’s team was led by junior Victoria Hutchens, who placed 34th overall with a time of 23:14.98. Behind Hutchens was sophomore Macy Carrier, who finished just outside the top 50 with a time of 23:52.04. Carrier finished ahead of fellow sophomore Sarah Zimmer by a 10th of a second. Rounding out the top five for the Bucs was sophomore Kylie Rutherford and senior Lisa Pallotta.
Overall, ETSU placed seventh out of 11 teams and was the top team from the Southern Conference, finishing just ahead of Radford which placed eighth and VMI which finished 10th. Nationally ranked Florida State won the event with a total score of 24.
On the men’s side, the 15th regionally ranked Bucs in the USTFCCCA were paced by junior Simeon Roberts, who recorded his first top ten finish of the season, coming in sixth with a time of 25:00.77. Sophomore David “Skyler” Winchester came in shortly after with a time of 25:27.83 and in 29th place. Sneaking into the top 50 was freshman James Garst, running a collegiate best time of 25:44.83. Senior Angus Baldwin and sophomore Daniel Sonnenfelt rounded out the top five for ETSU.
The Bucs were the second SoCon team to finish behind VMI who finished fifth. Akron edged nationally ranked Florida State by one point to win the team title.
The Blue & Gold will take a week off before heading to Louisville, Ky. to compete in the Greater Louisville Classic at Tom Sawyer Park on Oct.3. It is the same course that will be hosting the NCAA South Regional championships. The men’s race will start at 10:45 a.m. followed by the women at 11:30 a.m.
UNCG men finish third, women fifth at the Wolfpack Invite
GREENSBORO, N.C. – The UNCG cross country teams ran at the Wolfpack Invite hosted by NC State on Friday night at Wake Med Park in Cary, N.C. The men’s team placed third with 95 points behind NC State with 22 points and North Carolina that tallied 38 points.
Junior Patrick O'Grady was the first Spartan to cross the line in 15:40.1 on the 5-kilometer course. On the women’s side. UNCG finished fifth behind NC State, Duke, Elon and North Carolina. Kathleen Mansure clocked a 17:50.0 in her career debut for UNCG as the first Spartan to finish.
O’Grady finished in 11th while teammates Robert Anderson and Luke Sumerford both finished in the top-25 with times of 16:07.2 and 16:14.3, respectively. Bryan Whyms crossed the line six seconds behind Sumerford and rounding out the top-5 finishers for UNCG was junior David Guthrie, who crossed the finish line in 16:29.3.
North Carolina’s Stephen Mulherin was the first male runner to finish in a time of 14:52.4.
Katherine Link was the second female to cross the line for UNCG with an 18:33.1 on the 5,000-meter course and 10 runners behind her was teammate Katlyn Ayers who clocked a 19:20.4. Katlyn Adkins was the fourth Spartan to finish in 20:15.7, while sophomore Amy Moret rounded out the top-five with a 21:48.0.
Ryen Frazier of NC State was the first female finisher with a time of 16:06.5, crossing the line a minute before the rest of the field.
The Spartans return to action Friday, Sept. 25, at the Charlotte Invitational in Charlotte, N.C.
King, Martin pace Keydets at Virginia Tech
BLACKSBURG, Va. – Avery Martin finished fifth overall to lead the VMI men's cross country team at the Virginia Tech Alumni Invite, contested Friday in Blacksburg, Va. For the third straight meet, Bethany King paced the VMI women.
Martin crossed the line in 24:59, marking just the second time that he had broken the 25-minute mark in an 8K. He helped the Keydets finish fifth overall with 134 points, 10 points ahead of SoCon rival ETSU's seventh-place effort.
The rest of the Keydet top five included Daniel DeNijs, who was 24th in 25:31 and Sean Helmke, who came home 39th in 25:38. Brandon White (25:49/45th) and Kyle Sabourin (26:02/54th) comprised the rest of the top five, with Jay Broom acting as VMI's No. 6 runner with an 83rd-place finish in 26:46.
King completed the 6K course with a time of 24:02, just four seconds shy of her PR at the distance that she recorded last weekend at Furman. She finished 66th, eleven places ahead of Kennedy Flynn's 77th-place effort. Flynn finished in 24:25.
The Keydet finishers continued with Kelly Russell's 86th-place result (24:55) and Mia Castelveter, who finished 101st in 26:01. Christina Hill (26:36/106th) and Riley Neary (27:20/111th) rounded out the results.
As a team, the Keydets finished 10th overall with 297 points. Florida State won the meet, with Ohio second and the host Hokies third. The lone other SoCon school competing, ETSU, was seventh with 230 points.
VMI cross country will return to action Oct. 3, when the teams compete at the George Mason Invite in Leesburg, Va.