Photo courtesy cuse.com
(State College, Pa. -) For the first time in her Cross Country career, Syracuse University sophomore Sydney Leiher said she felt like a competitor.
Even though she is the tallest on the team, standing nearly six-feet, you would never have spotted her at the front of a race. But, today at the changed.
Leiher's first-place finish among collegiate competitors led the Orange women to a second-place team finish, falling nine points behind the host team, Penn State
With Coach Chris Fox still holding out some of his top runners, Leihr opened up her season with a personal best by more than 20 seconds in the 6,000 meter (3.72 mile) race, finishing in a time of 21:01.
"Every Cross Country race I try not to die less and less, and now, for the first time in a 6k, I didn't feel that way," Leiher said.
The Orange had not competed at this meet since 2008, when both the men's and women's teams swept first, scoring a perfect 15 and 30 points respectively.
Syracuse's runners didn't replicate those results today, but they did finish five runners in the top fifteen, including Seniors Maura Linde (5th, 21:25), Haley Cutright (9th, 21:38), Beth Wright (11th, 21:41), and Angelica Peck (12th, 21:43). Three of Syracuse's top-five women will wait to make their season debut in two weeks at the Boston Inter-Regional meet, hosted by Boston College. Leihr noted that these races early on in the season are not just rust-busters; They also help the women get used to racing as a team, something, she said, that they hope to do with a full squad in two weeks.
Head Coach Chris Fox also agreed that today's race added to the depth of both the men's and women's teams.
Still holding out seven of their top-eight men, the Orange men finished second to Penn State by six points but managed to edge out No. 29 ranked Georgetown by one point.
Redshirt Sophomore Joel Hubbard made his 2014 season debut on a cold and raining morning, leading the men with a finishing time of 26:14 for second place over the 5.2 mile course. He was two seconds behind the Nittany Lions' Matt Fischer. Finishing close behind was Redshirt Freshman Colin Bennie who was third in 26:15, with Junior Dan Lennon sixth in 26:17.
"The team ran really well today," Hubbard said. "We had some really great R-Freshman compete so there's certainly a bright future in terms of talent."
The Orange men had only a 22-second spread between the first and seventh runner today, something that Coach Fox said he is glad to see, despite just missing the win.
"You never like to lose, but overall, things went pretty well today," Fox said. "We don't try to take too much from this one, and it's just another step for us...but Collin and Joel did prove they can run at a higher level."
"It was a lot of fun to race as a team again," Hubbard said. "But, we are all really excited to go back to Boston."
Both teams will take next weekend off to prepare for their full-team debut at the Boston Inter-Regional meet. The men and women are currently ranked as the No.1 team in the Northeast Region in the USTFCCCA Preseason Regional Rankings, which were released on August 25. In the national polls, the SU women ranked No. 13, while the men ranked No. 8.
Week one of the USTFCCCA Regional Poll will be released on Monday and the national poll on Tuesday.
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