Pitt
Harry Groves Spiked Shoe Invitational
Top Five Finishes Highlight Cross Country Weekend
9/13/2014 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
Harry Grove's Men's Results | Harry Groves Women's Results | Father Bede Women's Results
Follow @PittTFandXCPITTSBURGH -Pitt's cross country teams put on a strong showing at Penn State's Harry Groves Spiked Shoe Invitational, with the women taking fourth and the men placing fifth out of 10-plus teams. Additionally, the women also ran to second place at Saint Francis' Father Bede Invitational.
The women's race featured three nationally-ranked teams in No. 13 Syracuse, No. 20 West Virginia and No. 29 Penn State. On the men's side, No. 8 Syracuse and No. 29 Georgetown were the two ranked squads.
Penn State won both the men's and women's race with 41 and 27 points, respectively, while Syracuse was second in both events. SU's men finished with 47 points and the women had 38.
Pitt (115 points), which is ranked 14th in the women's Mid-Atlantic region, wound up only eight points behind cross-town rival Duquesne (107) for third and finished handily in front of West Virginia (133). Duquesne is currently seventh in the Mid-Atlantic region while the Mountaineers, ranked 29th in the country, is all the way up at third in the Mid-Atlantic Region.
Sophomore Dee Dee Adams and junior Hillary Boxheimer went 1-2 for the Panthers for the second week in a row. Adams placed 16th on the 6K course in 21:50 and Boxheimer, who was 21st, was nine seconds behind her. The next two Pitt runners to cross the finish line were both freshman. Coming in at 24th was Melanie Vlasic in 22:07 and Beth Shenck took 34th in a time of 22:23. Senior Morgan Perry rounded out Pitt's top-five with a 37th place showing in 22:28.
The men's race was tightly contested with seven points separating first and third. Following Penn State (41 points) and Syracuse (47) was Georgetown (48). St. Joseph's, the 10th ranked team in the Mid-Atlantic region finished 10 points ahead of Pitt (126) for fourth place. Both those teams finished in front of Duquesne (7th place), which is ranked seven.
Once again, senior Cullen Davis was Pitt's top finisher, nabbing 14th place with a time of 26:27 in the 5.2-mile race. Junior Michael Runco was 26th in 26:42 and freshman Nate Sloan was nine seconds behind him in 34th. Two more freshmen completed the top-five scorers for the Panthers in Ryan Hughes (27:08) and Cordon Louco (27:15), who were 43rd and 49th, respectively.
The individual winners at Penn State were Syracuse's Sydney Leiher in 21:01 and the Nittany Lions' Matt Fischer in 26:12. There were a total of 130 runners in the women's field and 133 in the men's.
Over in Loretto, Pa. for the Father Bede Invitational, host school Saint Francis had the first five finishers for the perfect score of 15. Pitt was second with 43 points and Robert Morris placed third with 83. Saint Francis' Kylie Jackson won the individual title in 19:05.3.
The Panthers placed five competitors in the top-12 following Saint Francis' lead pack. Pitt was led by a trio of freshmen and two sophomores in the scoring. Rookie Anja Weiler was sixth in the 5K race in 20:33.7. Sophomores Karli O'Neill (20:40.5) and Abby Peters were next in line (20:54.7) for seventh and eighth. Freshman Adelie Ionescu closed out the top-10 in 21:08.2 and her classmate Emily Loeffelholz gave Pitt its final points by grabbing 12th with a time of 21:42.1.
Next weekend, Pitt stays in-state again and travels to the St. Vincent Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 20.
Players Mentioned
