Pitt
ISU Pre-Nationals Invitational
Pitt Cross Country Competes At Pre-Nationals
10/18/2014 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
Women's Blue | Men's White | Women's Open | Men's Open
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – On Saturday, Oct. 18, the Pitt men’s and women’s teams got a taste of the NCAA Championship, running against some of the top teams in the nation on the championship course at the Indiana State University Pre-National Invitational.’
The Panthers women, in the midst of an extremely successful season and currently ranked No. 10 in the Mid-Atlantic region, participated in the 6K Blue race, which included 43 regionally-ranked teams and six from the USTFCCCA national polls.
No. 4 Georgetown (110 points) won the team title and upset both No. 3 Oregon (139) and No. 1 Michigan (143), which finished second and third, respectively. No. 7 Colorado took fourth with 186 points and No. 29 NC State rounded out the top-five with 233 points.
Baylor’s Rachel Johnson won the individual title in 20:21.1 against a field that included 293 competitors.
Pitt, which finished 41st as a team, was led by junior Hillary Boxheimer. She placed 79th in 21:50.7. Senior Morgan Perry was the second Panthers runner to cross the line, coming in 165th with a time of 22.30.9. A pair of freshmen were next with two-time ECAC Rookie of the Week Melanie Vlasic taking 243rd (23:11.9) and Ellen Crook in 266th (23:39.4). Junior Alexandra Cady followed shortly behind the duo for 268th place (23:33.1).
The men were one of seven regionally-ranked teams competing in the 8K White Race, which also featured two nationally-ranked teams. No. 23 Indiana won the team title with 164 points. Only 15 points separated first from fifth. Drake (170 points) was second and Loyola (Ill.) (171) was just one point behind them for third. Central Michigan (175) edged out Kentucky (179) for fourth place.
Luis Vargas, of Elon, won the race by nearly 18 seconds, in a time of 24:20.3.
Pitt placed one runner in the top-10 and two in the top-25 to assist in their 14th place finish out of 28 squads. For the second straight race, junior Michael Runco paced the Panthers. His time of 25:16.2 was good enough for ninth and was a personal-best at the 8K distance, eclipsing his former record by more than five seconds at last year’s Pre-Nationals. Senior Cullen Davis came back after pulling out of the Notre Dame Invitational two weeks ago to place 22nd in 25:36.8.
The remaining top-five for Pitt were all freshman. Cracking the top-100 was Cordon Louco in 91st (26:29.6) and right behind him was Nate Sloan with a 102nd place showing (26:35.4). Ryan Hughes was the fifth Pitt runner to complete the course with a time of 26:50.4, good for 121st.
After a hard-fought race for both teams, Pitt will take an extra week off before the Atlantic Coast Conference Championships on Friday, Oct. 31, hosted by the University of Virginia in Earlysvilla, Va.
