On September 27, the men’s and women’s cross country teams competed at the Lock Haven Invitational hosted by Lock Haven Invitational. Going up against 28 other teams, the men’s team landed 15th in the 8k Crimson Race and 12th in the 8k White Race, and the women’s team landed 17th in the 6k Crimson Race.
The men’s team kicked off the day at 10 a.m. with the women’s team following shortly after at 10:45 a.m. Starting with the Crimson Race, senior Mick Barbi led the Ducks, crossing the line at 66th place. First-year Jacob Nolan followed at 73rd, seniors Daniel Jutras and Caleb Stephen landed 89th and 107th respectively, and sophomore Joseph Ruben hit 108th, which ended the scoring for the Ducks in the first race. Despite the scoring being rounded out after Ruben, the Ducks had five more runners in the Crimson Race. Junior Ryan Paradine and first-year Markus Soennichsen passed the finish line close together, with Paradine in 120th and Soennichsen in 122nd. First-years Ryan Shibles and Dylan Barrett came in 125th and 138th, respectively. Rounding out the Ducks running was sophomore Matthew Hodorowski, who ended in 161st. The top five scores from Barbi, Nolan, Jutra, Stephen, and Ruben gave the Ducks a combined score of 382 points.
The Ducks also had men running in the 8k White Race, with sophomore Kevin Medrow leading the Ducks at 24th. To finish off the scoring, first-years Max Thorn at 44th and Nelson VanMaaren at 66th, and sophomores Enrico Parrella at 76th and Cillian Griffin at 82nd crossed the finish line. The top five scorers gave the Ducks a final score of 276 points. Also running for Stevens in the White Race were first-years Divyesh Narravula, William Parker, Ryan Kropac, Christopher Reyes, Christian Garofano, and Colin Fisher. Respectively, they placed 83rd, 89th, 103rd, 107th, 121st, and 128th.
There were a handful of personal best records being set this day, with Barbi, Nolan, Ruben, Soennichsen, Shibles, and Barrett setting records in the Crimson Race, and Medrow, VanMaaren, Narravula, Parker, Kropac, Reyes, Garofano, and Fisher all setting personal records in the White Race.
The women’s team ran in the 6k Crimson Race only, where the Ducks were able to finish at 17th overall. Junior Kaitlyn Adams was the first of the Ducks to cross the line at 41st place with a time of 22:59. This marked the program’s first time under 23:00 in a 6k since 2017. Sophomore Isabella Gabay followed at 45th with a time of 23:04.1, which cut her previous personal best by almost 27 seconds. Sophomore Catherine Bondi crossed at 144th, and senior Kate Cen finished close behind her at 146th. Also running for the Ducks were seniors Taylor Enes in 149th and Isabel Vogel in 153rd at 26:01.8, which was a new personal record for her. First-year Anya Sadowski landed at 162nd, and junior Annika Vallanueva finished off the runners for the Ducks at 170th place, improving her time by more than two minutes from the Aggie Invitational the week prior.
Both Adams and Gabay were successful in turning in the two fastest times in a 6k for the Stevens women’s cross country team since 2017. By the end of the race, the scores from the top runners gave the Ducks a total of 455 points, landing them 17th behind fellow Division III competitors Lebanon Valley College and Point Park University.
The men’s and women’s cross country teams can be seen back in action at the DeSales University Invitational on Saturday, October 11, in Center Valley, PA, at 10:30 a.m.
