Both cross country teams escaped the early signs of winter in Rochester by journeying down to Atlanta, Georgia, last weekend for the University Athletic Association Championships.
UR’s top performer of the weekend came from the women’s race where sophomore Erika Was-serstein earned a seventh-place finish.
Her finish once again earned her first-team All UAA honors for the second straight year. She paced the team with her time of 18 minutes, 40 seconds.
“Erika had an outstanding race,” women’s head coach Barbara Hartwig said. “She ran her first mile very fast and maintained her pace for the rest of the race.”
Despite Wasserstein’s strong performance, in the final team results, the women finished in fifth place out of eight teams by tallying up 119 points.
The host team, Emory University, lead the way with 54 points. The men finished in a disappointing eighth place by compiling 174 total team points. Washington University in St. Louis earned the victory by scoring 49 points.
Wasserstein’s teammate, junior Lisa Johns also had an impressive race by running a time of 19:25 and placing 21st on the 5k course.
Rounding out the point scorers for the Yellowjackets were sophomore Mary Lebrun who placed 27th, seniors Amanda Danforth and Kadie Simon placed 30th and 34th, respectively.
“As a team, we still don’t have 100 percent rest,” Hartwig said. “I can’t wait to see what we do when we are fully rested.”
The day did not prove to be so successful for the Yellowjacket men. The last place finish was not what they were looking for.
Junior Dave Messenheimer was the lone UR runner to place in the top 25. His time of 26:15 earned him a 13th-place finish.
Sophomore Alex Voetsch backed up Messenheimer’s 13th-place finish with a 27th-place finish of his own.
A trio of seniors occupied the next three spots. Scott Rhodes, Andy MacMillan and P.J. Maglione rounded out the UR point-scorers.
The next championship meet on both teams slate is the New York State Championships at Ithaca College this weekend.
It will be crucial for both teams to compete well here before they head back to Van Cortlandt Park in New York City for the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s Regional Meet Nov. 10.
Johnston can be reached at cjohnston@campustimes.org.
