The NC State men’s and women’s cross country teams had a busy weekend, as they concluded competition at the ECU Pirate Invitational and competed in the Wisconsin Pre-Nationals.
At the Pirate Invitational, the men had three runners all finish in the top-35. Raleigh native and redshirt junior Kyle Christ set a personal record with a 25:21.83 to finish 17th, redshirt freshman Noah Graham finished 30th with a personal record of 25:57.28 and redshirt senior Jack Hagood ran a 26:10:12 to take 33rd.
Wisconsin Pre-Nationals immediately followed and saw the No. 13 Wolfpack women finish fifth overall with a score of 180 and the No. 26 NC State men take 14th with 423 points against some of the nation’s best teams.
The women’s side of the Cardinal 6k competition consisted of No. 4 Oregon, No. 7 Arkansas, No. 9 BYU and No. 11 Indiana.
The men’s side of the Cardinal 8k had No. 1 Northern Arizona, No. 5 Stanford, No. 9 Colorado State and No. 11 Colorado all present at the starting line.
The top finisher for the Wolfpack women was junior Elly Henes, who crossed the finish line placing ninth with a time of 20:23.7, finishing inside the top-10 for her first time this season.
Redshirt sophomore Dominique Clairmonte was next, finishing with a time of 20:39.1- good for 16th place. Senior transfer Nell Crosby crossed the line in 20:55.6 on the way to finishing 32nd and setting a personal record in only her second meet as a part of the Wolfpack.
Freshman Savannah Shaw and sophomore Isabel Zimmermann rounded out the top five for the Wolfpack, finishing with times of 21:17.5- good for 56th, and 21:22.4- good for 67th.
For the men, sophomore Ian Shanklin led the Pack once again, placing 55th with a time of 24:39.4. Behind him was sophomore Gavin Gaynor, who also broke the 25-minute barrier, crossing the finish line in 24:50.6 for a 76th-place finish.
Sophomore Joe Bistritz, sophomore Edwin Rutto and senior Elijah Moskowitz rounded out the scoring for the Pack while all finishing within five seconds of one another. They finished with times of 25:01.4, 25:04.9, and 25.05.2, respectively, which were good for 95th, 100th and 102nd places.
The teams also had runners participate in the Gray Races, which saw freshman Heather Holt finish in ninth with a time of 21:50.3 and sophomore Anna Vess finish 25th with a time of 22:10.2 for the Wolfpack Women, while the men’s side had three runners, with sophomore Tim Bason improving his personal record by 35 seconds and finishing 13th with a time of 25:10.7, junior Ben Barrett finishing 32nd with a 25.52.2 and junior Tanis Baldwin placing 39th with a 26.04.7.
This was the last outing before the postseason for the teams as they are in action next in the ACC Championships on Friday Oct. 26, at Franklin Park in Boston.
