Cross Country teams finish in middle of pack

The men's and women's cross country teams used the Carnegie Mellon Invitational this weekend as a building block for the Atlantic 10 Conference meet at the end of the month.

Men's coach Jim Lear emphasized that the team is OK with settling for middle of the pack finishes in these races as long as they have strong finishes at the end of the year.

"We want the conference. That's our goal," Lear said. "We have three weeks to get there. I think we're ready. We were second in men last year and fifth in women. We hope to improve on both."

The Dukes ran in familiar territory at the Schenley Oval with the men's team placing sixth out of 13 teams comprised of 12 colleges with 164 points, and the women's team placing seventh out of 15 teams from 13 schools with 168 points.

For the Duquesne men, freshman Alex Woodrow placed 15th with a time of 26:25.36. He was followed by a 21st place finish from senior Dave Farina (26:44.45), a 41st place finish from junior Dave Vaccarello (27:18.83), a 42nd place finish from freshman Brandon Krszal (27:19.61) and a 69th place finish from senior Mike Carver (28:17.30).

The women were led by 22nd and 23rd place finishes from sophomore Colleen Gilmore (19:59.34) and freshman Kendall Seymour (20:03.06) respectively. Freshman Elise Farris (20:30.07) placed 35th, and sophomore Shelby Haitz (20:50.88) placed 44th.

Woodrow was proud of his 15th place finish.

"Coach told me just to stay on our [junior varsity] team captain Dave Vaccarello, and I just stayed with him for the first couple miles, and he drifted off. We packed up, Dave Farina, Dave Vaccarello and myself, and then they were dying off, so I just took it off and focused. I was really impressed with how I did," Woodrow said.

Haitz said she used the meet as a building block.

"I was really looking to get a [personal record]. This course is easy, and this is perfect weather," said Haitz, who did not improve on her time from last year.

After disappointing finishes from both teams at the Paul Short Invitational Sept. 30, where the men placed 25th and the women placed 36th, these finishes looked a lot better.

"We had a rough week last week, but we bounced back from that," Farina said.

Now, the teams have their eyes set on the Atlantic 10 conference championships, which are scheduled for Oct. 29.

Haitz said these meets are the stepping stones to success at the end of the season.

"Everybody should keep on improving, and when we get to the A10s, we should place high," Haitz said.

Ashland University took both the men's and women's crowns with 29 points for the men's team and 63 for the women's. Northern Kentucky took second place with both teams, and Carnegie Mellon won third place in men's, while California University of Pennsylvania won third for the women.

The teams race once more before the A10 championships at the Penn State National meet on Oct. 14 in University Park, Pa.