Both men’s and women’s cross country continued to prepare for the Heptagonal championships by running against stiff competition at their respective meets this past weekend. The men’s team was among 40 teams at the Pre-Nationals, hosted by Indiana State, while the women’s team partook in the Penn State Invitational.
Cornell’s fastest men finished in 18th place among the 40 competing schools. Once again, senior co-captain Sage Canaday led the way for the Red. He completed the 8000 meter course in 24:09.
Classmate and fellow captain Jimmy Wyner finished just two seconds later as Canaday and Wyner placed 57th and 61st, respectively. Junior Zac Hine finished third among the Red and 84th overall.
“I didn’t run quite as well as I hoped,” Hine said. “I went out a little too fast and wasn’t able to finish hard.”
Also scoring for the Red were freshman Adrien Dannemiller and sophomore Charlie Hatch.
“I thought we were pretty solid up front,” Hine said. “Overall, I think we finished right about where we expected to. We would have liked to finish a few places higher, but we have to be pretty pleased with the results.”
Each of the seven Cornellians who ran Friday set a personal best for the 8k event.
“I think it gave us a lot of confidence coming into Heps,” Hine said. “Everyone is going to be looking to run just as fast at Hep.”
The University of Texas at El Paso had two runners in the top-10 and five runners in the top-40. Josh McDougal of Liberty was the individual winner of the race, finishing with a time of 22:57.
On the women’s side, the Red was one of 25 teams competing in a 6k race hosted by Penn State. Cornell finished in seventh place. Sophomore Stephanie Pancoast finished first among Cornell runners for the first time this season, as her time of 21:45 was good for 23rd overall.
Freshmen Katie Sullivan and Kim Standridge finished just a few seconds later, placing 28th and 35th, respectively. Junior Marie Parks also ran well, placing 41st with a time of 22:02. Her classmate, captain Aeriel Emig, rounded out the scoring for the Red, finishing 63rd overall.
“[The results] were pretty good because our top four were really close together and we wanted to beat Tennessee and we beat them,” Parks said. “I was happy with our team’s performance overall.”
West Virginia dominated the meet, as the team placed three runners in the top-7, including the individual winner, sophomore Marie-Louise Asselin.