Orange Women Finish 7th at Wisconsin

Friday, October 15

University Park, PA

10:45 AM

Syracuse University

PSU National Open

10/15/2021 2:29:00 PM | Cross Country

In a field with 17 ranked squads, the Syracuse women's cross country team took seventh at the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational – a strong performance besting some of the nation's top teams. The Orange, which entered the meet unranked, placed ahead of No. 7 Washington, No. 9 Stanford, No. 17 Michigan State, No. 18 Portland, No. 19 Providence, No. 20 Villanova, No. 22 Iowa State, No. 23 Notre Dame, No. 26 UConn, No. 28 Furman and No. 30 Oregon State en route to their top-10 finish.

Amanda Vestri led the way with a ninth-place finish overall, traversing the 6k course in 20:13.3. Freshman Savannah Roark took 52nd overall (20:55.7), two places ahead of teammate Holly Bent (20:56.8). Annie Boos (74th, 21:08.5) and Abigail Spiers (78th, 21:10.1) rounded out the 'Cuse scoring with strong pack running. Sophia Jacobs-Townsley (21:30.6) and Sydney Nowicki (21:45.9) were the other Orange competitors.

The Syracuse men finished 20th, in what was another loaded field with 15 ranked squads. Joe Dragon was the Orange's top finisher on the men's side, racing to a time of 23:39.6 on the 8k Zimmer Course, which was 15th overall. Aidan Tooker (24:04.5) finished in 52nd overall, followed by JP Trojan (87th, 24:25.4), Noah Beveridge (161st, 25:04.0), Silas Derfel (174th, 25:08.8) and Brody Smith (187th, 25:26.9).

No. 2 New Mexico won the meet with 93 points, followed by No. 1 NC State (102), No. 3 BYU (152), No. 6 Minnesota (188), No. 13 Oklahoma State (206), No. 21 Colorado State (236) and then the Orange with 265 points.

At Penn State, the Orange men were led by Ethan Wechsler. He finished the 5.2 mile race in 26:06.4, finishing 15th. Joey Eovaldi (26:28.5) took 29th, followed by Nathan Lawler (44th), Kevin Robertson (47th) and Jack Whetstone (57th). As a squad, the Orange finished seventh.

Justus Holden-Betts led the way for the 'Cuse women at Penn State. She crossed the line in 21:34.1, which was good for 18th overall. Reilly Zink was close behind in 24th overall, followed by Eleanor Lawler (44th), Emily Nugent (89th) and Olivia Joly (123rd). The Orange women took ninth at Penn State.

The Orange are back in action next weekend at the John Reif Memorial.