UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Penn State women’s cross country team took first place (24 points) in an excellent 6K race while the men’s team battled well against solid competition and finished third as a team (71 points) in the Spiked Shoe Invitational on Friday morning on the Penn State Golf Courses.
“It was a beautiful morning for cross country here out on the Penn State golf courses,” said Head Coach John Gondak. “We had some great competition to start the season. The women’s team got off to a really strong start, pulling out the win. I’m happy for them and how they competed. The younger men’s squad was much improved from last year and gave a really good challenge to Pitt and Syracuse this morning and we’re looking forward to getting back to work and getting ready for Paul Short.”
The Nittany Lions entered today’s competition with goals in mind and went out and exceeded those expectations. In the women’s race, Penn State went out with the lead in the beginning and never relinquished it through the entirety of the race. On the men’s side, the matchup with Pitt’s group pushed the young Nittany Lions to a solid finish.
WOMEN’S 6K RACE
Faith DeMars’ second-straight win highlighted an outstanding race for the Nittany Lion women. The senior crossed the line in 20:50.3, leading her team to the win. The Nittany Lions finished with four of the top five runners in the race, with Florence Caron (20:59.0), Maddie Ullom (21:11.3), and Sophia Toti (21:12.1) finishing in the 3-4-5 positions, respectively. Makenna Krebs rounded out a dominant top-five for Penn State, taking 11th place with a 21:40.3.
Following the Nittany Lions (24 points), Syracuse (40 points) and Pitt (79 points) finished as the second and third-place squads.
Penn State Women’s Top Seven Results:
Place (Points) Runner Time
1 (1) Faith DeMars 20:50.3
3 (3) Florence Caron 29:59.0
4 (4) Maddie Ullom 21:11.3
5 (5) Sophia Toti …
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