Cross Country Stuns in Set of Stellar Races

The cross country teams were able to put out stunning performances at the Purple Valley Classic last Saturday, Sept. 25. In 26-team fields, the men’s team was able to capture fourth place while the women’s team took sixth.

The men took fourth with a total of 117 points. SUNY Geneseo took first with 87 points, while RPI finished second and Amherst third. The men’s fastest runner this week was Miles Meijer ’19 in eleventh place with a time of 26:44.3. The next scorers were Matt D’Aqulia ’21, Theo Henderson ’20, and Connor Evans ’19 in twenty-fourth, twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth place, respectively. The last men’s scorer was Harrison Knowlton in thirty-first place with a time of 27:08.6.

“We really tested ourselves against some of the best in our region and the nation,” Knowlton said.

This impressive outing by the team proves that the men’s team is preparing themselves as championships approach.

“After a disappointing finish at nationals last year, we are set on being one of the top 10 teams in the nation this year more than ever,” Knowlton said.

The women were able to take sixth place with a score of 164, behind MIT, McGill, SUNY Geneseo, Williams and Dickinson. The top three scorers for the women’s team came in relatively close to each other. Kate McCary ’19 with a time of 23:19.4 came in twenty-second place, Talia Ruxin ’20 with a time of 23:19.5 came in twenty-third place, and Abigail Nadler ’19 with a time of 23:23.7 came in twenty-fifth place. The next scorers were Tasha Greene ’21 in forty-third place with a time of 24:04.5 and Meg Wilson ’20 in fiftieth place with a time of 24:10.6.

“[The meet was] a good opportunity to see how we compare to our competitors,” said Nadler.

Next week, the Panthers have two meets to look forward to. The Paul Short Invitational is an away meet on Friday, Sept. 26. The Vermont State Meet will be at home on Saturday, Sept. 30. “We’re really excited about both,” Meijer said. “At Paul Short, we get to run in a big, competitive field with DI and DIII teams that are outside of our region. Hopefully that will give us some good practice for a race like regionals where there is a large field. The Vermont State Meet is at home this year, so we’re excited to run fast on our home course and hopefully win the meet in front of our fans.”