Both men and women?s cross country teams took advantage of nice weather and a smooth course at the SUNY Geneseo Invitational Sept. 29.
In fact, UR took this low-key meet opportunity to relieve their top 12 runners from racing.
This allowed their teammates to assume a roll on the varsity squad. As a result, the women?s team placed fifth overall and the men?s team placed sixth overall.
Individually, for the Yellow-jacket women, the top team place-winner was freshman Anne Podkaminer. She placed 27th out of 91 total runners that competed in the meet.
Sophomore Beth Smith placed 38th, senior Nora Colgan, sophomore Justine Duetsch and junior Amy Shatsoff were the other place-winners for the Yellowjackets.
Perhaps the most impressive performance came from the legs of sophomore Lindsay Hagstrom, who knocked over one minute off her previous personal record.
?Lindsay?s performance only capped off a great day for all of the UR runners,? head coach Barbara Hartwig said.
The meeting, however, didn?t feature only ?B-teams,? the junior varsity squads. As a matter of fact, UR was the only team that sent their ?b-team.?
The rest of the schools treated this meet as a warm-up for the upcoming championship series later this fall.
?Both teams used this meet to show the competition that we have one of the deepest teams in the state,? Hartwig said. ?And I think they all realize that now.?
In the men?s race the outcome was just the same. The depth and strength of the UR runners came out and attacked the opponents.
?Things are definitely looking great for UR cross country,? coach John Izzo said. ?We have a bright future ahead of us and the future starts this week.?
A true sign of recruiting success, every place-winner for UR was a freshman who had outstanding races according to Izzo. Freshmen Terence Cordner, Ian Slattery, Peter Nobozny, Jason Beck and Dave Pascoe took the roll as varsity runners and made the best out of the opportunity.
?Not only are the meets getting tougher but our inter-squad competition is really competitive,? Izzo said. ?Everybody wants a spot in the top 12.?
Both teams will be back in action as part of Meliora Weekend. They host the UR Invitational at Mendon Ponds Park at 10 a.m. and 10:30 a.m., Oct. 13.
The Yellowjackets will then travel to Emory University in Atlanta, GA for the University Athletic Association Championships Oct. 27.
Johnston can be reached at cjohnston@campustimes.org.
