Since August, the men and women’s cross country teams have competed in five separate meets. At the latest competition on Saturday, Sep. 28. they both showcased their best performances to date. At the Fred Pavlich Invitational, the women placed first out of 14 teams, while the men placed first out of 11 teams. Both teams had all of their runners earn spots within the top 25, with two runners achieving a personal best since the start of their collegiate careers.
“It was great to see the team perform well before our two-week break from competition,” head coach Thomas Hartnett said. “Each meet builds upon the next as we prepare to offer our best performances at the NCAA Regional Championships in November.”
As a team of 15 girls, the women ran six kilometers (6k) and earned 27 points. Senior captain Marcella Candlin was the first Hawk to cross the finish line and placed second overall. Her final time was 24 minutes and 32.9 seconds. Junior Lillian Stephenson, senior Mackenzie Barcomb, sophomore Orquidea Briceno, junior Crystal Rustami, and seniors Jazmyne Daily-Simpson, Allison English, Mikayla Cecora, and Hunter Larson followed. Briceno finished sixth overall and managed to achieve a personal best time, running the 6k in 25 minutes and 48.8 seconds.
“Last cross country season, I ran 30.55 in the 6K, but with proper coaching, support from my teammates, and me showing up for myself everyday, I was able to run 25.48 and I took over five minutes off,” said Briceno. “The overall goal was that on race day, I was 100% present. That the race should be easy and I did not have to think, just react.”
The men’s team only has eight runners, but they still came out on top and bested ten other schools, with four Hawks taking the top four spots. Oliver Melara-Perez, a senior and captain of the team, finished first overall with a time of 27 minutes and 32.7 seconds. Sophomore Evan Miller came in second and set a new personal best with a time of 27 minutes and 33.2 seconds. Junior Gavin Bowers and senior Vincent Mandracchia came in third and fourth place respectively, setting times of 28 minutes and 8.6 seconds, and 28 minutes and 22.8 seconds.
“Taking first in this meet as a team was expected, as we knew heading into the meet that we had the fastest guys by far out of the field,” said Melara-Perez. “Something our coach wanted us to focus on was leading the race from start to finish, as we were going to have to set the pace for the rest of the field. Considering four of our guys came in first through fourth place, along with all of our top seven runners placing in the top 15 positions in the meet, it feels good to have met our expectations.”
The next meet for the two teams will be the Rowan Interregional Border Battle on Oct. 19th.