Pitt
NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regionals
Pitt Cross Country Performs Well At Regionals
11/14/2014 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
Men's Results | Women's Results
Follow @PittTFandXCUNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Competing at the 2014 NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regionals on Friday, Nov. 14 only two hours away at Penn State, the Pitt men's and women's cross country teams had their best showings at the meet since at least 2006.
Both teams took advantage of a familiar course to rake in their best finishes in years at the meet. Earlier this season, Pitt competed at the Harry Groves Spiked Shoe Invitational at Penn State back on Sept. 13, with the women running the 6K course and the men running the shorter 8K.
Pitt's women finished 11th, while the men took 12th place this season. Both were considerable improvements compared to last year's results when the women were 14th and the men were 16th.
For the women, it was their best finish as a team since 2004, when Pitt placed eighth in the Mid-Atlantic region. The Panthers have quickly climbed up the standings at the regional meet each of the past four seasons, having gone all the way from 26th in 2011 to 18th in 2012, 14th in 2013 and three spots higher still this year.
Pitt also received its best individual performance at the women's meet since 2004 as junior Hillary Boxheimer took 26th place in a time of 21:21. She finished just one spot shy or four seconds of earning All-Region and was 22 spots better than her performance last season. In 2004, Maureen McCandless captured the title and went on to become an All-American at the National event.
Entering the event, the Panthers were ranked 11th in the Mid-Atlantic region, and finished exactly where they were expected to, totaling 305 points. It was just 10 points behind Rutgers (295) for 10th place and 11 away from Navy (294), which finished in ninth.
Following Boxheimer, was senior Morgan Perry, who had her best regional finish in her four years with a 44th place showing in 21:44. Thanks to Boxheimer and Perry, it was the first time since 2007 that the Panthers women had a pair of top-50 finishers.
Competing in her first NCAA regional, freshman Melanie Vlasic crossed the line in 22:14 for 70th place. Junior Alexandra Cady was 81st in 22:22 and freshman Ellen Crook was close behind, rounding out the scoring for Pitt in 89th with a time of 22:29.
Nationally-ranked No. 2 Georgetown was the overall winner with 38 points and boasted the individual winner as well in Katrina Coogan, who completed the 6K course and bested the field of 207 runners in a time of 20:06. She was 12 seconds ahead of Jillian Forsey, who led second place, No. 7 West Virginia (42 points). No. 28 Princeton placed third with 125 points, No. 30 Villanova was fourth (128) and host Penn State closed out the top-five with 155 points.
Similar to the women, the men have shown steady improvements over the past four regional races. After placing 21st in 2011, the men climbed to 17th in 2012 and up another spot to 16th in 2013.
Senior Cullen Davis' 42nd place finish in 31:14 was the best place for a Panthers men runner since 2008 when Joshua Christopher was 28th. Junior Michael Runco was close behind Davis in a time of 31:21, which was good for 48th. The duo becomes the first Pitt teammates to place in the top-50 since 2007.
The men improved their position by one spot from the most recent regional rankings which slotted the Panthers 13th. Overall, Pitt finished with 337 points.
Behind the one-two punch of Davis and Runco was freshman Cordon Louco (32:09) and sophomore Chris Montgomery (32:10), who finished back-to-back in 75th and 76th place, respectively. Freshman Nate Sloan capped the scoring for Pitt in 96th place with a time of 32:45.
No. 7 Villanova won the team title with 41 points, followed by No. 14 Georgetown (74 points) and No. 24 Penn State (87) rounding out the top three. Penn State's Matt Fischer grabbed the individual title with a time of 30:16 on his home course in a field of 156 runners.
Pitt will close out its season next weekend at the IC4A/ECAC Championships on Saturday, Nov. 22, which will take place at Van Cortlandt Park in Bronx, N.Y.
Players Mentioned
