The men’s and women’s cross country teams are a staple of success for Elizabethtown College athletics. Both competed at the Dickinson Long/Short Course Invitational on Saturday. The Invitational, which hosted institutions from all three divisions of the NCAA, took place at Big Spring High School in Big Spring, Pa.
The women took 11th place in the short course team standings and fifth in the long course standings. Junior Lydia Dearie was the only Blue Jay runner to crack the top 10 in either race. In the 4,000 meter race, Dearie placed ninth out of 301 runners competing with a time of 14:52.74 — a second-straight personal best.
The Blue Jays had three other personal bests that day, with graduate student Amanda Kerno and sophomores Casey Quinto and Brianna Earnshaw each beating their old times. Kerno came in at a time of 15:21.53, good for 24th overall. Quinto and Earnshaw finished with times of 15:27.03 and 15:27.96, respectively.
In the long course, senior Amelia Teaman led Etown with a time of 24:02.58, which placed her 28th out of 265 runners. Sophomores Liz Wedekind, Amy Gessler and Samantha Gehly followed Teaman with times of 24:34.03, 25:01.67 and 26:13.98, respectively.
The men’s team placed ninth in the short course race and fifth in the long course standings. Like Dearie for the women, senior Dan Gresh was the only runner for the men’s team to finish in the top ten. His time of 26:20.20 was good enough for sixth place out of the 233 runners in the long course event. Junior Zach Trama was able to crack the top 20 of the race with an 18th place finish. Juniors Ryan Conway and Sam Cooper, along with sophomore Keegan McDonough, placed 40th, 46th and 57th, respectively. McDonough’s time was a personal best for the distance.
Junior Adam Harriger was the first Blue Jay runner out of the five Blue Jay runners to finish the short course race. His time of 12:52.13 placed 44th overall. Sophomores Jon Anderson and Andrew Lesko both ran a shade over 13 minutes, finishing a second apart from each other. First-year Tom Fitzgerald and sophomore Ian Kulis were the Blue Jays’ fourth and fifth runners to finish the short course race with times of 13:15.36 and 13:16.25.
Both the men’s and women’s cross country teams will enjoy a weekend off before heading to New York to participate in the Geneseo Invitational on Oct. 4.
