By Rachael Cataldo, Staff Writer
The Susquehanna women’s cross country team had three runners finish in the top-15 to lead the team to its second place finish in the championships at Juniata on Saturday, Oct. 28.
Sophomore Erin Reese led the way finishing with a time of 24:09.22.
“It felt great [to lead the team],” Reese said. “The entire race it was a matter of staying mentally strong and running through the pain.”
Reese broke away from a pack of runners late to place fourth overall. The top three runners finished in a span of just five seconds from each other.
Senior Hannah Stauffer took 11th place clocking a time of 24:58.41 and senior Kailyn Reilly finished in 14th place with a time of 25:14.35.
“Erin, Hannah and Kailyn continue to lead the way with their performances and work ethic. But no matter how well they ran, it was going to take a complete team effort for us to finish where we expected,” head coach Martin Owens said.
Freshman Melissa Kleman was the next scoring runner with a time of 26:14.53 to finish in 22nd place. Sophomore Emily Eck
rounded out the scoring crossing the finish line in 28th place with a time of 27:02.72.
“A lot of people seemed surprised after the race when the women took second but I can honestly say, we were not surprised,” Owens said.
Elizabethtown won the championship title scoring 23 points, while Susquehanna was second with 76 points. Moravian finished in third with 89 points followed by Scranton (97), Juniata (120), Catholic (127), and Goucher (195).
“From the gun, the women attacked the race and put themselves out there. This is the toughest 6K course they will see all year but it did not matter to them. Their competitiveness really showed through,” Owens said after the race.
For the men’s cross country team, a trio of runners crossed the finish line within a span of 31 seconds to lead the team to a sixth place finish.
Senior Kyle Skelton was the first River Hawk to finish with a time of 29:14.97 to take 21st place. Junior Ciaran Fisher was the second of the pack finishing in 23rd place with a time of 29:21.90. Senior Eric Pressler was 24 seconds behind Fisher with a time of 29:45.13 to finish in 27th place.
“Seniors Kyle Skelton and Eric Pressler had strong finishes improving [more than 20] spots from last year’s championships,” Owens said. “Ciaran Fisher, our top runner, unfortunately fell victim to an illness that has been hampering him for two weeks but he still gutted out a top three team finish and top 30 finish with the two seniors.”
The team was also without freshman Lenny Bolinsky, who sprained his ankle four weeks ago and has not been able to race beyond 4000 meters.
Sophomore Brandon Sorge and Freshman Jake Menchey were the final two scoring finishers for the River Hawks. Sorge finished in 48th place with a time of 31:14.59 and Menchey finished in 58th place with a time of 32:50.50.
Elizabethtown also took the team title on the men’s side followed by Juniata, Moravian, Scranton, Catholic, and then Susquehanna.
Both teams have the week off until they race in the 2017 Division III Mideast Regional Championship hosted by Dickinson College on Saturday, Nov. 11. The top eight runners on each squad will race in the meet. Owens said the rest of the team members “will start their transition to track and field.”