Syracuse cross country has strong display in 2 weekend races
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No. 20 Syracuse cross country finished its weekend at the Cowboy Jamboree against some of the nation’s top teams. The mens’ team finished eighth and the women sixth out of the 26 competing schools. This came a day after SU competed in the Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown, which took place at Boston.
The Orange men were led by senior Paul O’Donnell (23:56.4) who placed 31st, while freshman Assaf Harari (23:57.6) and redshirt junior Nathan Lawler (23:57.8) followed shortly behind finishing in 34th and 35th. The rest of the SU scoring was rounded out by redshirt seniors Nathan Henderson (24:02.7) who took 41st and Noah Carey (24:13.8) who placed 61st.
Despite not having a runner finish in the top 30, the Orange finished with 202 points. The top spot in the men’s 8k was secured by No. 4 BYU, as No. 3 Stanford and No. 1 Arizona State finished second and third. The Orange notably placed ahead of No. 8 Washington, No. 11 Air Force, No. 15 Harvard and No. 16 Gonzaga.
The women saw similar success in the 6k; led by the weekends only top-ten finisher, sophomore Savannah Roark (20:37.3) who placed ninth. She was followed by senior Abigail Spiers (21:03.2) and freshman redshirt Sage Brooks (21:03.3) who consecutively finished 31st and 32th. Redshirt juniors Eleanor Lawler (21:14.5) and Ivy Gonzales (21:27.5) crossed in 46th and 62nd to complete the SU scoring.
This outing by the unranked SU women will propel them to ranked status as they finished in sixth with 175 points against the nation’s top teams. The host team No. 3 Oklahoma State came out on top followed by No. 22 Northern Arizona and No. 7 BYU in second and third. The Orange were just four points short of No. 5 Stanford and finished ahead of No. 6 Washington, No. 9 Arkansas, No. 12 Michigan, No. 17 Ole Miss and No. 20 Harvard.
It was a similar overall finish from the day before when the Orange competed in the Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown. The men’s side finished in seventh place out of 15 teams while the women finished sixth of 19 teams.
ACC rival Virginia placed first in the men’s 8k race, as SU was led by junior Silas Derfel (24:18.9), who finished in 12th-place. The next to cross the finish for the Orange was senior Karl Winter (24:26.4) in 15th-place and redshirt freshman Kamari Miller (25:01.7) who finished in 35th. Junior Kevin Robertson (25:47.6) finished in 66th-place, while junior Matthew Dragon (25:55.3) finished in 75th-place. The Orange ended up compiling 203 points.
On the women’s side, junior Justus Holden-Betts (18:05.3) led the way for the Orange in the 5k, finishing in 28th. Next to follow were sophomore Reilly Zink (18:10.2) in 32nd, then freshman Kensey May (18:19.2) and senior Shona McCulloch (18:19.3) finished consecutively in 39th and 40th. To finish out the scoring was junior Emily Nugent (18:34.8) with a 55th place finish. SU tallied 219 points, as Virginia, Northeastern, and Dartmouth finished first-third, respectively.