his past Saturday, the Elizabethtown College Cross Country program hosted the Blue Jay Alumni Challenge. This was the first home cross country meet in over a decade. The College has hosted home meets before, but most of them have always been at the Fairgrounds or the Lancaster County Central Park. The five teams that were in attendance on Saturday were Susquehanna University, Salisbury University, Etown Alumni and Valley Forge Christian College.
This course, created by Head Coach Brian Falk, started on the women’s soccer practice field. A majority of it went through the frisbee golf course, located in the woods behind Founders Residence Hall, and around the athletic fields on campus. The two kilometer loop ended on the soccer field where it started. The men ran the course three times and the women ran it twice. The women ran a 4,000 meter race, which is 2.5 miles, and the men ran a 6,000 meter race, which is 3.7 miles.
Senior Traci Tempone took first place for the women’s race with a lead of 17 seconds and a time of 15:32.79. This was Tempone’s fourth career win. Following Tempone was junior Amelia Tearnan taking third, senior Megan Tursi taking fourth, first-year Liz Wedekind taking fifth, and senior Amanda Kerno taking sixth in the meet overall. The only runner not on the team to be in the top six was runner-up Ashley West from Susquehanna University. Having a strong group of runners finish so close together in front will be very beneficial when heading into championship meets. Alumna Megan Patton was the top finisher for the alumni team with a time of 16:36.24. The women’s team won the Blue Jay Alumni Challenge with 19 points, giving them a 30 point win over Susquehanna University. In third place was Salisbury University, followed by an Etown alumni team in fourth and Valley Forge Christian College in fifth place. Etown will see Susquehanna University again next year when they compete in the Landmark conference.
The men’s team took second on Saturday with a top performance by junior Dan Gresh. Gresh took first overall and was the only runner to break 20 minutes on Saturday with a time of 19:56.28. Following Gresh was first-year Christopher Jones in eleventh place with a time of 20:30.66, and sophomore Zach Trama in twelfth place with a time of 20:35.93. Senior Ian Hamilton took sixteenth and sophomore Ryan Conway took eighteenth, both running under 21 minutes. Some of the top runners on the men’s team did not run this meet, giving other teammates a chance to take the spotlight. A College Alumnus Greg Wetzel ’06, finished first for the alumni team and fifth overall with a time of 20:09.00. Wetzel was an NCAA Championship participant in 2004 and 2005. Susquehanna University took first at the Blue Jay Alumni Challenge with 25 points, Etown’s men’s cross country team finished second, Salisbury University took third, Etown men’s alumni took fourth and Valley Forge Christian College took fifth.
Both of the College’s cross country teams do not compete this weekend due to the three meets they have had over the past three consecutive weeks. Their next meet will be the Dickinson Long/Short Invitational at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa. on Sept. 28, 2013.
