Hokie ClubEARLYSVILLE, Va. - Both the men’s and women’s cross country teams raced their way to sixth-place finishes at the ACC Cross Country Championships at Panorama Farms in Earlysville, Virginia, on Friday morning.
“The women ran a solid race. We’re more of a track team on the women’s side with a lot of middle distance runners. With the women finishing in the top 8 of a pretty deep conference with 15 teams is incredible,” explained head cross country coach Ben Thomas. "The men raced just like we wanted them to. They gave a great effort. The great news about the men’s team is that everyone comes back next year and we return our top runner who didn’t race today so they’ll have a lot of good experience going forward.”
Sarah Rapp and Paige Kvartunas were the two Hokie competitors to finish with All-ACC honors for finishing in sixth and eighth places in the women’s 6K race, respectively.
Both Rapp and Kvrtunas started in the lead pack and were able to sustain that spot from the beginning of the race. Rapp was the Hokies' top finisher in sixth place with a time of 20:13.10. Kvartunas posted an eighth-place finish with a time of 20:18.70.
Next for the Hokies was Shannon Morton in 32nd place. Morton posted a time of 21:14.9 while Katarina Smiljanec and Hilary Krein finished in 59th and 60th places, respectively. Smiljanec finished in 21:42.2 and Krein finished in 21:42.6.
Hannah Green posted a 70th-place finish with a time of 21:51.1. Amanda Smith closed out the scoring for the women in 87th place with a time of 22:07.1. Overall, the women totaled 161 points.
In the men’s race, Stuart Robertson barely missed out on All-ACC honors, coming in 22nd place. Only the top 21 finishers earned All-ACC recognition. Robertson posted a time of 24:00.3 in the men’s 8K race. Darren Barlow was only a few spots behind Robertson in 27th place, finishing with a time of 24:13.1.
Next for Tech was Patrick Joseph, who finished in 39th place with a time of 24:26.4. Daniel Jaskowak (24:27.0), Neil Gourley (24:28.2) and Juan Campos (24:33.3) finished in 41st, 42nd and 44th places, respectively. Andrew Gaiser closed out the Hokie scoring in 47th place with a time of 24:33.3 to give the men 163 total points.
“I think we’ll do really well at the regional meet. In the past, we’ve had a better result in the regional meet than we have in the ACC meet. If we do that, we’re going to have a good day,” concluded Thomas.
Next up for Tech is the Hokie Open on Nov. 7. After that, Tech will head to the NCAA Regionals hosted by Louisville on Nov. 14.