The Pitt cross country team opened its season last Saturday in the friendly and familiar… The Pitt cross country team opened its season last Saturday in the friendly and familiar confines of Schenley Park for the Duquesne Duals, with the men finishing second behind Duquesne and the women going 5-2 in head-to-head matchups.

Pitt raced against the Dukes, Canisius, Carnegie Mellon, Juniata, Niagara, St. Bonaventure, St. Vincent and Wheeling Jesuit.

Six Panthers overall recorded top-20 finishes, but coach Clinton Bell wasn’t satisfied with the results.

“Both teams performed below our expectations and theirs. The girls team is young, so it’s a bit understandable because they need to get in shape,” he said. “We should’ve beaten Duquesne.”

The men were led by junior Teddy Miller, with a time of 25:48:00. The men’s team put five in the top 20 in the 109-runner race, including juniors Miller and Josh Christopher who recorded top-10 finishes, finishing fourth and eighth, respectively.

The other top-20 finishers were senior Kyle Kaminski (14), freshman Chase Broussard (19) and sophomore Greg Kareis (20).

And while Bell was disappointed with the men’s team last Saturday, he expects them to improve significantly as the year continues.

“This is the year for our guys’ team to do great things,” Bell said. “I have a strong group of seniors and juniors leading the team with a talented group of freshmen and sophomores backing them up. They have improved every year since being freshmen, and improvement before is an indicator of their success in the future.”

Alyssa Kunkel paced the Panthers on the women’s side with a time of 20:04:00, claiming 19th overall.

“She did incredibly well for a freshman,” Bell said of Kunkel.

Sophomore Miya Johnson and senior Emily Setlock also placed in the top 25.

The Panthers are back in action on Sept. 19 in the Cappie Anderson Invitational, held in Princess Ann, Md.

Bell expects the team to fare better.

“In all fairness, it was the first meet,” Bell said. “We’ve only been training for two weeks, our expectations are a little higher even though we haven’t gotten into the training season yet.”