The Wildcats men’s and women’s cross-country teams headed down to Boston last Friday to compete in the esteemed Coast to Coast Invitational race held in Bryant Park. In this preseason match, some of the country’s best runners came from all over the country to compete before the season to see how they match up in the 8K run for the Men and 5K run for the Women.
The top runner for the men’s team was sophomore James Wilkes who placed 111^th of the seven performers for the ‘Cats in the race with a time of 25:52 for the 8K run. Wilkes also was the team’s top performer in the home opening meet back on September 1^st against Brown, Dartmouth and Providence. The sophomore will be looking to lead the team in upcoming events as he is off to a strong start. Trailing him in order was senior Davis Clark (123^rd), junior Nicholas Sevilla-Connel (129^th), senior Brett Hoerner (135^th), first-year Maxwell Ireland (137^th), senior Dean Yost (144^th), and junior Jack Crawford (149^th). The Syracuse Men’s team firmly won the race with 37 points and Washington trailed them with 70 points. Campbell University first-year Amon Kemboi won the race for the men with a time of 24:03. It is important to note that the ‘Cats men’s team did not run all of their top runners in preparation for the championship meets in the upcoming weeks.
Sophomore Sydney Rice was the top performer for the ‘Cats women’s cross-country team in the 5K run. She finished in 135^th with a time of 19:12. Close behind her three other runners, sophomore Cayla Barretto, junior Madeleine Brandon, and junior Morgan Sansing all finished within 15 seconds of one another placing, 140^th, 145^th, and 146^th respectively. Following, sophomore Althea Devereaux came in 156^th with a time of 19 minutes and 43 seconds. Lastly but certainly not least first-year Kira Nolan and graduate student Shannon Stang came in 159^th and 166^th finishing up the Women’s runners for the ‘Cats.  The Ole Miss women’s team won the race coming in with 102 points and Georgia Tech placed second closely behind them with 105 points. Providence junior Abby Wheeler won the race with a time of 17:10.
The ‘Cats seemed to still be shaking the cob webs off as both the Men and Women’s teams finished in the bottom half of all schools attending. The Women’s team finished in 24^th with 722 points and the men’s team finished in 21^st with 626 points.
Both the ‘Cats men’s and women’s cross-country teams will look to bounce back on September 29^th when they head down to compete in the Paul Short meet in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania hosted by Lehigh. They will both also return to Boston to compete in the New England Cross Country Championships on October 6^th, where they will once again be running at Bryant Park.