Cross country competes at CMU Invitational

The Pitt women’s cross country team didn’t have to travel far to compete this past weekend, as… The Pitt women’s cross country team didn’t have to travel far to compete this past weekend, as it trekked up to Schenley Park to race in the Carnegie Mellon Invitational. The Panthers finished 10th overall out of 14 competing teams, with a time of 1:50:15.39. The men didn’t compete at last Saturday’s race. Indiana University of Pennsylvania took home a first place finish in the team event for a second straight year, finishing the 5k race in a combined time of 1:38:33.35. The hosting Tartans won on the men’s side with their combined time of 2:10:31.21. More than 150 runners competed on both the men’s and women’s sides of the race, and the Panthers had eight runners finish in the top 100. Senior Melissa Vignetti had the best time by a Pitt runner, finishing the race in 20:34.39, which placed her 27th. Sophomore Heather Calisto was the next Panther to cross the finish line. Her time of 22:00.96 placed her 61st. The third Pitt runner to finish the race was senior Gizelle Joshua, who finished in 22:15.50, putting her 68th. Liz Stern of CMU finished with the top time in the women’s race by crossing the finish line in 18:51.90. Alicia Lichvar, Carrie Mavrikis, Prachi Gupta, Janelle Adams and Kari Hedderick were the other Panthers to finish in the top 100. Thirteen other Pitt runners joined them in the race. Next up for the Panthers is a trip to Delaware to participate in the Delaware Alumni Invitational next Saturday. Pitt will travel to New York for the Big East Championships the following weekend.