The Georgetown women’s cross country team pulled off an upset victory Friday afternoon at the Spiked Shoe Invitational at Penn State, defeating the regionally top ranked Nittany Lions, Guelph, West Virginia, and Saint Francis with a score of 25 points. The men’s team, ranked third in the Mid-Atlantic region, fell short in a close battle with Penn State, losing 36-40 without several of their top runners.
Graduate student Madeleine Perez was the top finisher for the women, running 20:53.4 over 6K, finishing with her course best by over 30 seconds. Another strong performer for the Hoya women was sophomore Alyssa Aldridge, whose fourth place finish of 21:11.6 was nearly a 70 second improvement from her time on this course last year. A 5th place finish by sophomore Katherine Modrall (21:13.0), 6th place finish by sophomore Sami Corman (21:20.2) and an 8th place finish by freshman Maggie Donahue (21:30.7) rounded out the top five for the Hoyas. Director of Track & Field and Cross Country Julie Culley was pleased with the result, but did not want the Georgetown women to rest on their laurels this early in the season.
“We are proud of the effort and execution of the women’s team today. We put nine runners in the top 15 and showed great depth as a program. We are young with three sophomores and one freshman rounding out the top five, but it’s easy to see how good this team is and will be in the next few years,” Culley said.
“Madeline ran a fantastic race and ran a personal best on that course by over 30 seconds and was a great low stick for us. Penn State is a top ranked team nationally and No. 1 in our region. It was a feather in our cap today, but the season is long and we have a lot of work ahead of us.”
On the men’s side, graduate student Spencer Brown, the self-proclaimed “athlete special,” lived up to his name finishing 2nd on the 5.2 mile course in 25:39.8. Brown was followed under 26 minutes by junior Ty Brownlow, who finished 4th in 25:47.3 and by sophomore Price Owens, who placed 9th with a time of 25:59.3. A 12th place finish by senior Jack Salisbury (26:11.0) and a 13th place finish by sophomore Quinn Nicholson (26:11.6) finished up the scoring for the men, and they were followed closely by a pack of four other Hoyas. However, the strong pack running was not enough to defeat a good Penn State team. Head Men’s Cross Country Coach Brandon Bonsey did not seem too concerned about the runner-up finish and will use the race as a way to guide training for the next few weeks as the Hoyas look to get better.
“I was really happy with the effort from our front three consisting of Spencer Brown, Ty Brownlow and Price Owens. They put themselves in a great position all race and hung tough over the very challenging last mile of the course. After that it was a mixed bag for us but I saw what we need to work on. We now head into a three-week training block headed into Notre Dame, so I’m excited to see how much we can improve during that time span. Adding in Nick Wareham, Jack Van Scoter, Matt Bouthillette and Rusty Kujdych at Notre Dame will help our team significantly.”
The Hoya men next race on October 4th in South Bend, Indiana at the Joe Piane Invitational hosted by Notre Dame, while the women compete next on October 5th in Lehigh, Pennsylvania in the Paul Short Invitational hosted by Lehigh University. Results will be posted on guhoyas.com. Follow @GUVoiceSports on Twitter for coverage of all fall sports on the Hilltop.
