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Syracuse's men's cross-country captures second consecutive ACC championship; women's team places eighth: http://bit.ly/1u1ir8x
Syracuse men’s cross-country captures 2nd consecutive ACC championship; Orange women’s team place 8th
By
Sam FortierContributing Writer
19 minutes ago
The Syracuse men’s cross-country team won its second consecutive Atlantic Coast Conference championship and its fifth in the last six years, at Panorma Farms in Charlottesville, Virginia on Friday. The Orange totaled 32 points, nearly three times better than runner-up North Carolina State, which finished with 90. The women’s team finished eighth overall with 162 points.
Syracuse junior Martin Hehir was the top overall finisher with a time of 23:15.2 in the 8K as the SU men’s team put five runners in the top 11 spots.
“They got out aggressively and stayed in the front,” SU head coach Chris Fox said. “They let the race come to them. They raced really smart.”
The victory gives the Syracuse men’s team a great shot at qualifying for the NCAA championships, but first the Orange competes in the NCAA Northeast Regionals in the Bronx, New York on Nov. 14.
After Hehir came senior Max Straneva in third place, followed by freshman Justyn Knight in eighth, sophomore Joel Hubbard in ninth and sophomore MJ Erb finished 11th.
Syracuse dominated throughout the race as, midway through at the 4K mark, six of the top nine runners were from SU, which included all of the top three slots.
Syracuse’s team total of 32 points is the best score for any ACCmen’s team since Virginia put up the same score in 2007.
Margo Malone paced all runners on the SU women’s team with a third-place overall finish, clocking in at 20:01.6 in the 6K.
“They had a really, really bad day,” Fox said of SU’s women’s team. “They’ll have to run decently at regionals to make the NCAA tournament.”
The top five finishers for the women were Malone, senior Jessie Petersen at No. 20, junior Maura Linde coming in 40th, sophomore Rebecca Skodis finishing 49th, and senior Haley Cutright at No. 50.
Sophomore Sydney Leiher, competing as the third runner on the SU team, finished seventh for Syracuse and 79th overall.
“Sometimes the star basketball player shoots 2-for-15, sometimes he shoots 11-for-15,” Fox said. “It was a bad day. They’ll re-group. They’ll make nationals.”
