Cross Country Sophomore Leads Red Pack at Lehigh

The football players were not the only Cornellians to compete admirably at Lehigh over the weekend. Although they were unable to match the thrilling victory that their counterparts on the gridiron earned, the men’s and women’s cross country teams both competed admirably in Bethlehem.
[img_assist|nid=32448|title=Stay Close|desc=In the 8k course at Lehigh this past weekend, sophomore Adrien Dannemiller finished with the Red’s top time, while five of his teammates completed the race within 33 seconds of Dannemiller’s 20th place finish. The men finished fifth overall.|link=node|align=left|width=|height=0]
The Red claimed fifth place in a highly competitive field in the men’s half of the Paul Short Invitational. Wisconsin dominated the event with three runners on the top-7, while Syracuse, Villanova and Iona were the other teams that finished ahead of Cornell. All four of the teams that scored better than Cornell are ranked in the top-30 nationally.
“We hadn’t gone up against elite competition until this race,” sophomore Adrien Dannemiller said. “Seeing how well we matched up against them was a real confidence booster because we matched up with them a lot better than most people thought we would.”
Dannemiller set the pace for the Red. He completed the 8k course in 24:17 and finished 20th overall. Five of his teammates would finish within the next 33 seconds.
“I was really surprised by my performance,” Dannemiller said. “I performed above my expectations. I was really happy with the race.”
Senior Zac Hine’s time of 24:26 was good for second best on the team and 29th overall. His classmate, Andy Miller, finished five seconds later, capturing the 37th fastest finish. Sophomore Max Kasak, senior Sam Luff and sophomore Nate Edeleman earned 55th, 60th and 61st, respectively, by finishing within :03 of each other. Edelman’s time did not count toward the team’s score, as only the five fastest times contribute to a team’s point total.
On the women’s side, the Red placed ninth in a 43-team field. West Virginia won the meet, while Villanova and Baylor also finished in the top-3.
Senior Marie Parks established a new personal best in the 6k by finishing in 21:00. She finished 22nd in the field of over 300 runners and had the fastest time among Cornellians. Junior Stephanie Pancoast crossed the finish line in 21:30, which gave her the 44th fastest time. Sophomore Kim Standridge clocked in third for the Red and 62nd overall.
One of the bright spots for the Red was freshman Meghan Brown, who claimed 72nd place with her time of 21:52. Brown finished fourth for the Red which marked the first time this season that a rookie has cracked the top-5. Senior captain Aeriel Emig completed the scoring for Cornell by finishing 78th.
“I’m happy with my personal performance,” Parks said. “[The team’s performance] wasn’t as good as we wanted. A couple teams that we should have been closer to beat us and some teams we beat were a little too close to us.”
Parks thinks that the key for Cornell going forward will be a tighter pack of Red runners leading the way.
“We have to make sure that our times for our top-5 runners aren’t as far apart as they have been,” she said.