Bair earns all-Region honors, misses NCAAs by one place

The Panther cross-country team participated in its final meet of the season last weekend at… The Panther cross-country team participated in its final meet of the season last weekend at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regionals. The team’s impressive performance – which included a seventh-place overall finish for the men – brings into question how well the team could have fared this season if they had not lost their top runners to injury.

“We did not have as good a season as we could have because of all of the injuries, but those things are part of any athletic team,” head coach Alonzo Webb said. “Overall, I feel we were pretty successful with what we had to work with.”

Despite the setbacks, the team remained positive and finished off their season with three top-35 finishers: Sam Bair, Tim Konoval and Nicki Angstadt.

Leading the way for the women was the senior Angstadt, who finished in 34th place with a time of 21:41.6. Though tops among the Pitt women, Angstadt was disappointed to fall short of All-Regional – the top 25 runners earn that status – in her final collegiate race. Angstadt is already looking toward the indoor track season after contributing to the women’s championship last year.

“I was more satisfied with my Big East performance,” she said on PittsburghPanthers.com. “It will be nice to take some time to regroup before the indoor and outdoor track seasons and as a team, build on our performance.”

Suzy Bossart and Candice Coholich came in second and third, respectively, also contributing to the team’s 13th-place finish.

“The women ran as a pack, but were not as close to the front as they needed to be,” Webb said. “They should have a great team next year, though.”

Bair, who has been a frontrunner all season for the Panthers, posted a top-20 finish in every competition this year, and didn’t let up at this meet.

The sophomore finished with All-Regional status by coming in ninth place with a time of 30:37. Unfortunately, he missed qualifying for the NCAA national championships by one place.

“The NCAA takes the top eight runners from the regionals, and Sam missed it by one,” Webb said. “Even though he may be disappointed, the fact that he did so well all year long is a credit to him. Sam is really a mile runner at heart. The 10,000-meter course is double what he ran in high school, and cross-country is not even his favorite sport. So, to run so well in cross country should give him lots of confidence going into the indoor and outdoor track seasons, where he aims to be a sub-four minute miler.”

Bair’s comments mirrored those of his coach.

“I’m really kind of excited for the indoor season,” Bair said on PittsburghPanthers.com. “I’ve been training hard and I don’t have any injuries, which should be a great opportunity for me in indoor track.”

Also contributing for the men were Konoval, who finished in second for the Panthers and 28th overall, Mike Long in 51st place, and Steve Gonzalez in 75th. Despite running with only a six-man roster, the men improved from a ninth-place finish last season to seventh place this season.

“The men ran especially well,” Webb said. “This was one of their best finishes at the regional meet and they did it without two of their best runners.”

Coach Webb will now give his runners a short break before they compete in the annual Blue/Gold competition at the Fitzgerald Field House on Dec. 2-3. Webb has indicated that his distance runners will not be competing, however, so as to recuperate from the cross-country season.

The event marks the beginning of the indoor track season for the team. Their first inter-collegiate meet will not take place until the Jan. 13-14 Skip Summerville Invitational in Akron, Ohio.