Pitt
ACC Championships
Boxheimer, Davis Lead Pitt At ACC Cross Country Championships
10/31/2014 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
EARLYSVILLE, Va. - The Pitt men's and women's cross country teams each received fantastic individual performances, placing one runner each in the top-40, but the effort was not enough to move either team up in this year's Atlantic Coast Conference Championship standings. The event was held at Panorama Farms in Earlysville, Va.
After placing 69th in her debut ACC Championship, junior Hillary Boxheimer finished 40 spots higher this time around in 29th place with a personal best time of 21:04.3 in a 6K race. Boxheimer missed being an All-Conference recipient by eight places, or less than 12 seconds. The top 21 runners in the field are named to the All-Conference teams.
Senior Cullen Davis led the men for the second straight year in his final go around at the ACC Championships and moved up the results in his second try. Following a 61st place showing last year, Davis rose to 36th with a personal record 8K time of 24:22.9.
Despite the individual efforts of Boxheimer and Davis, neither team was able to better its results from a year ago. In a field of 15 teams, Pitt's men placed 13th while the women were 14th. Although the standings don't show an improvement, both teams lowered their scores from the previous season at the event.
Following Boxheimer for the women's team was freshman Melanie Vlasic in 22:07.7 for 89th place. Senior Morgan Perry was 104th with a time of 22:24.7 and sophomore Dee Dee Adams was just 2.3 seconds behind her for 106th. Freshman Ellen Crook rounded out Pitt's top five in 22:40.5 for 116th place.
The women's team champion was nationally-ranked No. 15 North Carolina, who upset six-time defending champion No. 12 Florida State, 57-90. No. 13 Virginia was third with 109 points, followed by No. 18 NC State (119) and Notre Dame (132) for the top-five. Two more nationally ranked teams, No. 30 Boston College and No. 16 Syracuse were seventh, and eighth, respectively, with 162 points. Pitt finished with 388 points.
BC's Liv Westphal won the women's rave in a course record 19:43.8, breaking the previous record by 14 seconds. She was also more than 14 seconds ahead of second place finisher Colleen Quigley from FSU.
Davis and junior Michael Runco continued their one-two punch for the Panthers men's team. Runco smashed his 8K personal record time by nearly 20 seconds to finish in 68th place with a time of 24:56.8.
Pitt's remaining first five also set personal records at the 8K distance on the day. A pair of sophomore's were next to cross the line for the Panthers with Wes Roberts taking 95th in a time of 25:31.1 and Chris Montgomery placing 98th in 25:35.0. Freshman Cordon Louco was right behind them in 25:41.6 to finish 104th.
Syracuse repeated as the champion, placing all seven scorers in the top 15 to run away with the team title 32-90 over unranked NC State. Following the top two teams were No. 28 North Carolina (95 points), No. 13 Virginia (121) and No. 15 Florida State (158).
Martin Hehir of Syracuse was the men's individual winner in 23:15.2, outrunning the old course record.
The Panthers take next weekend off to recover before heading to Penn State for the second time this season to compete in the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regionals on Friday, Nov. 14.
