SOUTH BEND, IND. – Michigan State’s cross country programs continued to shine on the gray Friday morning of Sept. 29 at the Joe Piane Invitational where the men placed fifth in the feature race and the women second in the open race.
Led by senior Alex Penski for a second consecutive race, the men’s team finished the five-mile course behind four nationally-ranked teams and the Florida State squad that received votes in the latest U.S. Track and Field & Cross Country Coaches Association rankings. Penski finished 26th overall with a time of 24:04.8, followed closely behind by Joshua Smith at 24:05.3. Owen Huard placed 34th, Andrew Nolan 44th, and Aden Smith in 46th rounded out the all-senior Spartan top-five. Freshman Parker Lambers paced to a 52nd place finish in his second race with the team.
On the women’s side, senior Taylor Visscher led the way in the team’s second place finish in the 5K open race behind only regional foes and USTFCCCA No. 4 Notre Dame. Visscher finished in 5th among the attached runners with a time of 17:54.3. Junior Abigail Lee placed ninth in 18:01.0 while fellow junior Taylor Ewert notched 11th at 18:08.4. Freshmen Sarah Coyne, Allison Chimielewski, and Chloe Wall were next up in 14th, 16th and 19th respectively.
Unattached runners also did very well on the day. On the men’s side freshman Moses Osterink placed fourth overall in the men’s open five mile at 24:36.0 while Michael Hegarty was eighth. On the women’s side freshman Taylor Pangburn placed 14th overall while Madison Price also cracked the top-20 in the open 5K.
Next up, the teams take two weeks off before competing at the notorious annual Nuttycombe Invitational in Madison, Wisconsin, hosted by the Big Ten foe and nationally ranked Badgers on Friday, Oct. 13.
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