After last weekend’s conference championships, both the men’s and women’s cross country teams rested their top runners Saturday, leaving the racing to the B-teams. The men’s backup runners placed second at the Cavalier Open in Charlottesville, Va., while the second-tier women’s team participated in a non-scored meet in Raleigh.
“This was essentially a chance for the next-best guys to compete,” men’s head coach Norm Ogilvie said. “It shows team’s depth and the future to come.”
Set on the rolling grassy hills of Panorama Farms in what Ogilvie called and “ideal setting,” the men’s team scored 49 points in a field of five teams and several unattached runners. Perennial powerhouse Georgetown barely clipped the Blue Devils. Duke, however, beat William & Mary, a team the top runners will face in next week’s NCAA Southeast Regional Championship.
Senior Ian Cronin, the top Blue Devil finisher, completed the 8-kilometer race in 26:04.90, finishing fourth among collegians and sixth overall. Right behind Cronin were a pair of Blue Devils, sophomore Marco Salmen and freshman Alex Reinhart, who Ogilvie said “ran surprisingly well.” The two paced each other for the majority of the race, finishing two seconds apart, eighth and ninth among collegians.
Sophomore Billy Kennedy, after making a wrong turn in the last mile, finished only 14 seconds behind Reinhart, 11th among collegians. Pat Parrish rounded out the Blue Devils’ scoring five with a 17th place finish among collegians.
All five will compete at the IC4A Championships in New York Nov. 20.
The top men’s runners will return to the course to battle Clemson, Virginia and William & Mary next weekend at the Southeast Regional championships in Greenville, S.C. The top finisher of the three schools will likely join N.C. State in earning the region’s automatic bids to the NCAA Championships.
The women’s team also competed this weekend, although in a less formal meet against local rival N.C. State. Junior Clara Horowitz, a former All-American, placed second in her first race of the season with a time of 17:24 on the 5-kilometer course. Senior Meghan Leon and junior Liz Wort placed fourth and fifth, respectively. Sophomore Elle Pishny and senior Paris Edwards also finished in the top 10.
Horowitz will likely join the varsity team next weekend at the Southeast Regional meet as the Blue Devils look to either earn an automatic bid to the NCAAs or improve their positioning for an at-large berth.
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