Overcoming injuries and inexperience, Pitt’s cross country teams put together a sound… Overcoming injuries and inexperience, Pitt’s cross country teams put together a sound performance this past weekend at the Penn State Spiked Shoe Invitational.

The day belonged to the Syracuse Orange, however, who squeezed the competitive life out of the opposition, winning both the men and women’s competitions.

The meet was the second of the season for the Panthers, whose men’s team won the Duquesne Duals meet a week ago. This week, the men placed fifth overall with 142 points, while the women placed 14th with 407 points.

“It was good to see that our team is moving in the right direction,” said senior Mike Long on PittsburghPanthers.com. “We still have further to go, but it’s a good benchmark to build on for the rest of the season.”

Long was one of two Panther men to finish in the top 25. The other was fellow senior Tim Konoval, who placed eighth with a time of 26:22.80. Long was the next Panther to cross the finish line and did so in 26:47.90 — a personal improvement by a half-minute from a year ago.

Eric Fleming, Andy Tomaswick and freshman Lane King rounded out the top five with finishes of 34th, 39th and 40th places, respectively.

“Today’s race was big for us,” King said. “It’s the first step towards our ultimate goal of making it to nationals. Being a freshman and contributing already means a lot to me. I like stepping into this program and being able to help out.”

The women’s team was led by sophomore Monica Bhattacharjee who finished in 51st place with a time of 23:31.65. Like Long, Bhattacharjee improved on her time from a year ago by a half-minute.

“I thought we did well, but we definitely have a lot of work to do,” said Bhattacharjee on PittsburghPanthers.com. “This is the first big meet, and it’s a good way to gauge where we’re at. We just need to keep getting better and build up as the season goes on.”

Junior Nikki Bielick also greatly improved her time, and was the next in line for the Panther women with a time of 23:38.95. Senior Suzy Bossart, sophomore Aly Brown, and freshman Rachel Botham rounded out the top five.

“On the women’s side, we’re a young team,” head coach Alonzo Webb said. “Three of our top five girls were out of the meet, and psychologically it would have been good for the team if they were there.

“But we know what to work on, and we’ll improve as the season goes on.”

The Panthers have much to improve upon in the coming weeks, but according to Suzy Bossart, the team is not concerned.

“We’ll start doing some speed training in preparation for the next couple of meets,” she said. “And things are looking good for the future. We’re on track to run well at the end of the season.”

The Panthers will next travel to Lehigh University on Friday, Sept. 29 to compete in the Paul Short Invitational.