Syracuse Women’s Cross Country Places 10th at Virginia Invitational
By Jared Valentin | @jaredvalentin_
CHARLOTTESVILLE, V.A. – After a two week hiatus, Syracuse women’s cross country was back in action this Saturday at Panorama Farms. SU came off of a second-place finish at the Harry Groves Spiked Shoe Invite at Penn State on September 8th. Sophia Jacob-Townsley finished second overall for the Orange in that meet with a 6k time of 20:59.
Syracuse tallied 269 points at the Virginia Invitational, narrowly breaking the top ten. SU ended just 16 points behind Colorado and 19 points above North Carolina. The Orange bested ACC rival Duke, but could not top Virginia, who placed third on the day. Northern Arizona won the invitational scoring just 48 points, led by Elise Stearns’ 16:18.9 finish. The junior brought in the fastest time of the day, winning by less than a second over Georgetown’s Chloe Scrimgeour (16:19.7).
Savannah Roark was the leading finisher for Syracuse. The junior placed 41st and traversed the 5K course in 17:02.9. Teammate Riley Lusk (17:09.4) took 50th, followed by Olivia Joly (17:13.5) and Jacobs-Townsley (17:16.8) in 54th and 59th respectively. Baneet Bains rounded out the top five for SU with a time of 17:21 and placed 67th overall. Sophomore Emma Eastman (17:36.4) finished 96th individually, while senior Madison Neuner took (17:37.4) took 101st.
SU also had the opportunity to preview the NCAA Cross Country Championships course. For the first time since 1987, Virginia will host the NCAA Cross Country championships at Panorama Farms. It is only the second time ever the Cavaliers have hosted nationals.
Syracuse travels to Massachusetts next Friday for the Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown. The Orange scored 189 points and finished 6th overall at last year’s meet, narrowly edging out Boston College. The Women’s Featured 5K gets underway at noon.
