Cross-country: Panthers fall short at Penn State

The Pitt men’s and women’s cross-country teams ended their regular-season schedule with… The Pitt men’s and women’s cross-country teams ended their regular-season schedule with disappointing results.

The men finished in 23rd place on Friday at State College, Pa., while the women took 28th place out of more than 35 schools, including the top-ranked men’s team from Syracuse and women’s team from Villanova.

“Our team ran poorly, and most of the guys were not competitive with the rest of the runners,” Josh Christopher said. “It was a tough course, and a bit longer of a racing distance today, so perhaps they let their nerves get to them too much, which may have slowed them down.”

The event took place on the Blue & White Golf Course, where the men ran a 5.2-mile race. This was 0.37 kilometers longer than their usual 8k race, and the women raced in a 6k.

Christopher, who has been a consistent performer for the Panthers all season, finished the race in 82nd place with a time of 26:51.

“Individually, I didn’t race to my fullest potential, but as I focus on Big East now, I’ll be sure to become more race sharp so I can run faster at Syracuse,” he said.

Senior leading runner Teddy Miller was unable to compete this past weekend due to illness.

“This hurt our team performance since [Teddy] is such a huge contributor to our team doing well,” Christopher said.

Close behind Christopher in the Panther’s pack were runners Kevin Hull, Andrew Cerrito, Wesley Washington, Dontave Cowsette, Elliot Rhodes and Vinnie DePalma.

For the women, freshman Susannah Feinstein led the team with a time of 23:09.

Elesia Wilson, Stephanie Powers, Rachel Hess, Miya Johnson, Rachel Erny and Emily Barno closed out the top-seven competitors for the team.

“As far as my consistency with every race, I just look at people that annoy me in the race and focus on passing them,” Wilson said.

The men and women will practice for the next week in preparation for the Big East Championships held Oct. 30, in Syracuse, NY.

The event will be held at Drumlins Country Club.

“At a team level, I would probably just [like to see] faster times, which has been happening so I’m happy with everything,” Wilson said. “As an individual, I just want to get my times down and be a person to look out for in the Big East.”