October 20, 2008

Cross Country Holds Own Against Elite Competition

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At the Pre-National Invitational in Terry Haute, Ind., the men’s and women’s cross country teams both proved that they are capable of competing at the highest level. In a field littered with nationally ranked teams, the Cornell men placed 16th out of 40 teams. On the women’s side, the Red placed 22nd of 41.
The Cornell women were led by senior Marie Parks. Parks raced away from any of her teammates and finished the 6K event in 21:24.4, which was more than 30 seconds faster than any of her teammates’ times. She earned 63rd place individually in a field of nearly 300 runners. [img_assist|nid=32792|title=Feel the burn|desc=The men’s cross country team showed its strength against several nationally-ranked squads in Indiana this weekend.|link=node|align=left|width=|height=0]
Junior Stephanie Pancoast finished second for the team and 109th overall. Sophomore Katie Sullivan and senior Fiona Cundy finished in third and fourth place, respectively, with times of 22:08.8 and 22:13.9. Senior captain Aeriel Emig rounded out the scoring for the Red by placing 142nd individually.
The men improved upon their 18th place showing from a year ago by placing 16th at the invitational. The team just missed a much better finish, as its score of 428 points had them closer to 12th place than 17th place.
Senior Zac Hine set the pace for Cornell and earned a 42nd-place overall finish. Sophomores Adrien Dannemiller and Nate Edelman clocked in shortly after Hine with impressive times. Senior Andy Miller’s time of 24:53.1 was fourth-best on the team and 95th best overall. Sophomore Max Kasak completed the scoring for the Red by finishing in 145th place. Senior Sam Luff and junior Charlie Hatch just missed scoring for the Red.
“We had a good race but we could have been better,” Kasak said. “We had a lot of guys step up their games and run good races, but not everybody brought their ‘A’ game. We had good races, but overall it could have been better.”
The women’s “B” team showed that Cornell has remarkable depth. The Red placed second among 16 teams at the Rochester Invitational. The schools that competed were mainly smaller schools; nevertheless, the Red was without 10 of its best runners.
Rookie Emma Clarke finished seventh overall and set the pace for Cornell. Junior Erin Roberts, freshman Christine Curtis, fellow rookie Nevena Pilipovic-Wengler and senior McAleese finished ninth, 10th, 11th and 13th, respectively.
The men’s “B” team was even stronger than the women’s, dominating the competition in Rochester, N.Y. Cornell easily won the 15-team meet and placed four runners in the top-5. A trio of sophomores led the way, as John Means, Hassan Shalla and Drew Hart finished second, third and fourth overall, respectively. Juniors Joel Frost-Tift and Dan Cerqueira also figured in the scoring by finishing in fifth and 10th place, respectively.