This past Friday, the cross country teams kicked off their seasons at the Wolfpack Invitational at Wake Med Soccer Park. The women’s team finished second with 38 points, with senior Brittany Tinsley leading the way. The men took first with a team score of 24. Maryland’s men came in a distant second, with a score of 45.
Redshirt senior John Martinez led the Pack in its 5K run with a final time of 14:46, finishing third behind runner Greg Kelsey of Maryland, who took second with a time of 14:40. Following Martinez was redshirt freshman Patrick Campbell, who finished fourth with a time of 14:47. Andrew Chebii of Winston-Salem State finished fifth at 14:52, and N.C. State sophomores Bobby Moldovan, at 14:53, and Andrew North, at 14:53, took sixth and seventh place.
“We ran a little quick in the first mile, but leveled out and ran perfect at two miles,” Martinez said. “Coming up the hill we slowed down a bit, but the hard effort the entire way paid off and we finished strong as a group.”
Sophomore Ryan Hill won the race with a record time of 14:35 in the 5K, but was running unattached, so his record time essentially did not count. Coach Rollie Geiger said he was extremely pleased with his team’s performance.
“Our game plan was to run as a group. I thought they stuck to the plan, but the Maryland athlete (Kelsey) had a great day,” Geiger said. “Ryan Hill wasn’t in uniform, but his record was off the charts and then we had five guys including him all under 15 minutes for a 5K. It’s amazing.”
The women’s team lost to Maryland in the 5K. Tinsley took first place at 17:30, followed by sophomore Emily Pritt with a time of 17:35. Maryland’s Kristen Jenkins finished third at 17:46. The next three runners to cross the line, Jordan Jenkins (17:46), Erin Mercer (18:10), and Tiayonna Blackmon (18:15), were all unattached and this prevented their efforts from counting towards the final score.
Women’s coach Laurie Henes said her athletes were upset their efforts didn’t help win the team race, but also said she was proud of how well they ran.
“I think some of our athletes were a little upset with the coaches because they wanted to win the team race,” Henes said. “Decisions to run certain athletes unattached prevented that from happening. We had to make those decisions as coaches, and we accept that.”
The official results showed Maryland winning the women’s race with 24 points against N.C. State’s 38 points. Five of the top six athletes were a part of the Pack, finishing ahead of all but one of Maryland’s runners. Had three of the five runners from State ran attached, the Wolfpack would have finished with a final team score of 18.
“Brittany Tinsley looked great, I think this is the fastest one of our athletes has run in this meet for quite a while,” Henes said. “Jordan Jenkins and Erin Mercer looked great as well for true freshmen. As a group a lot of our true freshman ran well.”
