Syracuse Cross Country Cruises to Victory Over Colgate

Both Orange teams bust-the-rust in their season opening meet.

The Syracuse men and women’s cross country teams earned victories Saturday at the Harry Lang Invitational at Colgate. The men swept the top five, scoring a perfect 15 points in the men’s race while the women secured six of the top seven spots in the women’s race.

For the men, freshman Kevin Robertson won the men’s race with a time of 19:35.5, with fellow freshman Ethan Wechsler close behind at 19:44.2. Senior Jack Whetstone finished third in 19:52.0 followed by sophomore Nathan Lawler in 20:03.5. Rounding out the squad, junior Matthew Dragon finished fifth in 20:33.8.

All five men, even with making a wrong turn extending the course’s distance, finished at least a minute and a half over the first Colgate runner, sophomore William Crounse (22:14.3)

For the women, ‘Cuse scored 20 points to Colgate’s 40, securing the victory. Freshman Olivia Joly crossed the finish line second over the 4,800-meter race in a time of 18:20.3. Sophomore Emily Nugent crossed the line third (18:31.3) followed by frosh Maddie Heintz (18:35.3), junior Siobhan O’Keefe (18:58.2) and Bethany Steiner (19:02.5). Freshman Caroline Kirby was seventh (19:08.7). Colgate senior Sophia Manners won the race in a time of 18:03.2.

“We have a lot of young women,” said head coach Brien Bell, talking about the decision to rest most of the women’s team for the season’s first meet. “It’s beneficial to have a little rust-buster for their first college race rather than going into a more serious race next week against many good teams at Penn State.”

The entire ‘Cuse squad will travel to Penn State Friday, Sept. 10 to compete at the Harry Groves Spiked Shoe Invitational.