Cross country takes first place at Cedarville race

Last Saturday, the Carnegie Mellon cross country team competed in the Cedarville University Open. The men’s team easily finished first out of seven teams with 26 points while the women’s team had a solid showing, taking second out of six teams with 51 points.

Led by senior Brian Harvey, five runners on the men’s team finished in the top 10 overall. Harvey finished first overall with a time of 24:57.04. Junior Dario Donatelli (25:23.63) and sophomore J.P. Allera (25:52.11) followed with second- and sixth-place finishes.

Senior Breck Fresen (25:56.91) and sophomore Dan Addis (26:00.67) took seventh and ninth overall. Senior Ryan Anderson finished 11th overall with a time of 26:01.66 while senior Mike Condon finished 18th with a time of 26:42.65.

Sophomores Josh Eickmeier (26:54.91) and Justin Kurp (27:21.75) delivered solid performances, finishing 22nd and 30th overall. Senior Raphael Bertrand (27:23.22) and junior Chris Rizzo (28:00.82) took 31th and 39th.

On the women’s side, first-year Liz Stern had another strong performance, finishing sixth overall with a time of 18:36.78. First-year Christine Warner (19:48.96) and senior Carolyn Clayton (19:51.77) took 10th and 11th.

“The girls are all very supportive of each other, as evidenced in our racing style. The ultimate goal is to find a teammate to stick with in a race and help — to push each other and to keep each other going at the highest level possible within our capability,” Stern said.

First-year Cassie Wallace and junior Anna Lenhart placed 12th and 16th overall with times of 19:56.45 and 20:20.73. Senior Chrissy Krutz (20:43.12) and sophomore Laura McKee (20:46.51) finished in the top 20 by taking 18th and 19th overall.

Several new first-years joined the race with Alyssa Montanaro finishing 31st overall with a time of 22:15.45. Lauren Sittler (22:28.07) and Chelsea Hoffman (22:38.81) took 34th and 37th.

The cross country team will take a break until Saturday, Oct. 11 when it hosts the Carnegie Mellon Invite at Schenley Park in Pittsburgh, Pa.

“With everyone’s parents coming, we’ll have the biggest cheering squad yet,” Montanaro said. “And then afterwards, we’re having a picnic, and who wouldn’t be excited for that?”