Cross Country Conference Race Recaps

La Salle Wins Atlantic 10 Men’s and Women’s Championships; Penn Ivy League Men’s Title Winner; Villanova Takes Men’s Big East Crown; Lydia Olivere of Villanova and Zach Michon of Saint Joseph’s Win Individual Championships

The Cross Country season is wining down. The road to a national championship and All-American status was started with the conference title races. The local schools ran well placing at the top or near the top in their races. La Salle won the men’s and women’s Atlantic 10 titles. Penn was the Ivy League Men’s champion, while Villanova won the Big East men’s crown. Lydia Olivere was the individual champion in the Big East women’s meet with a time of 21:29.5. Zach Michon was the league champion in the Atlantic 10 men’s race winning in a time of 25:02.7.

Atlantic 10 –

La Salle captured the men’s championship with 56 points, 46 ahead of the runner-up Hawks of Saint Joseph’s. Zach Michon won the individual title for the Hawks covering the distance in 25:02.7. It was the 10th crown of the Explorers. The top finisher for La Salle was Luke Jaciw-Zurakowski who was third turning in a time of 25:13.2. Ibrahim Kedir (25:20.3) was fifth, and Anthony Hawthorne came in 8th covering the distance in 25:24.5. Alex Sanders was the Most Outstanding Rookie as the top freshman finisher with a time of 26:01.6. Colin Kane of Saint Joe’s finished just behind Sanders crossing the finish line in 26:05.2. The Hawks Matt Scarpill (25:31.8) was ninth overall.

In the women’s meet La Salle won its 8th title in 19 years with 68 points, 242 in front of second place George Washington. Grace Mancini led the team finishing in third place covering the distance in 18:01.8. Eleanor Mancini (18:09.2) was fourth and Jerika Lufrano (18:15.4) took 9th place, and was the Most Outstanding Rookie. Lottie Black of Rhode Island won the individual competition in 17:38.8. Elaine Estes was the top finisher for the Hawks turning a time of 18:13.9 taking 8th place.

Big East

Villanova brought home trophies from the Big East meet. The men’s team won its 7th championship, the first since 2014. Lydia Olivere was the individual champion crossing the line in 21:29.5.

The Wildcats men’s team placed 5 runners in the top-20 led by Nathan Rodriguez who was second running the race in 25:38.7. Andrew Marston (25:41.1) was third overall followed by Casey Comber (25:47.3) in 6th, and Haftu Strintzos (25:51.11) in 8th. Evan Makepeace of Butler was the individual champion running the race in 25:03.9. Villanova had 36 points followed by Georgetown with 42, then Butler with 58.

The Villanova women’s teams was second overall in the race standings. Butler won the team title with 52 points. Villanova was second with 61 points, four ahead of Georgetown. In addition to Olivere the top Villanova finisher was Ann Campbell (21:55.5) who was third, and Maggie Smith (22;12.5) placed eighth.

Ivy League

The Penn men’s team captured the Ivy League championship with 62 points. It was the second title in the last four years, and the 4th all-time. The Quakers placed five runners in the top 20. Harvard was second with 59 points and Princeton took third scoring 56 points. Anthony Russo (24:38.3) was second behind Kenny Vasbinder of Columbia, the individual title winner who covered the distance in 22:08.8. Will Daly (24:59.7) was tenth while Alex Renken (25:08.2) was 14th, and Alex Roth (25:18.3) took 19th place.

In the women’s race Penn was third overall behind Columbia and Harvard. The Quakers and the Crimson totaled 89 points, but lost out on tiebreakers. Maddie Villalba placed fourth running a time of 21:02.1. Ariana Gardizy (21:33.0) was 13th just ahead of Nia Akins.

American

Temple took second place in the men’s championship behind Tulsa who won the title for the 6th straight year. Harry Powell was the top finisher for the Owls running the course in 24:28.9. Other Temple top 20 runners were Zach Seiger (24:29.4) in 11th place ahead of Kevin Lapsansky (24:30.0). Kristian Jensen was 17th (24:39.0) two seconds in front of Anton Harrsen who turned in a time of 24:41.0).

The Temple women’s team was third behind Tulsa (37) and Wichita State (63). The Owls had 83 points. Grace Moore took 6th place for the Cherry and White running a time of 20:48.3. Michelle Joyce (21:15.0) was 15th placing her ahead of Millie Howard crossing the line in 21:26.8.

The NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional is scheduled for November 15th at Lehigh.

Written By: Glenn Papazian

Contact: Glenn@PhillyCollegeSports.com

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