Vaughn Lackman Wins Philly Metro in Collegiate Debut as Cross Country Starts 2022 Season

Photo provided by Jefferson Athletics.
Photo provided by Jefferson Athletics.
Posted: Sep 10, 2022

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - - With a band of new faces, the Wilmington University cross country team opened the 2022 season with impressive showings at the Philadelphia Metropolitan Cross Country Championships on Saturday afternoon on Belmont Plateau.

Freshman Vaughn Lackman won the 8K men's race in leading the team to a third place finish while freshman Camila Cornejo paced the women with a 14th place finish in leading the team to fifth place.

The men had three of the top four finishers in the race, earning 91 points overall to finish in third place overall before Jefferson and Georgian Court. Vaughn Lackman made his collegiate debut with a medalist running time of 28:45.4. Sophomore Dan Wyshinski finished third overall with a time of 28:56.9 while sophomore newcomer Trent Taylor placed fourth overall with a time of 29:01.9. Hayward Boutte gave the Wildcats 26 points with a time of 31:59.7 while Nicholas Licup rounded out the Wildcats scoring with a time of 36:20.6.

Jefferson won its home race with 64 points while Georgian Court followed in second with 73 points.

On the women's side, it was freshman Camila Cornejo who led the Wildcats in her collegiate debut, finishing 14th overall for 13 points with a time of 22:50.0 in the 5K race. Fellow freshman Taylor Burchfield added 15 points with a time of 23:10.7 while senior Alexa Crowell made her return with a 25th place showing and a time of 24:37.6. Freshmen siblings Tiffany Banning and Samantha Banning finished 32nd and 39th overall, respectively, with Tiffany crossing the line in 25:43.8 and Samantha in 26:47.1.

The Wildcats were only one point shy of Holy Family who finished in fourth place with 123 points. St. Mary's (Md.) finished third with 82 points while Jefferson finished 47. The field trailed Felician all afternoon who won the race with 22 points, including the top three finishers and four in the first six overall.

The Wildcats will take next week off before returning to the course in Central Pennsylvania. They head to the Lock Haven University Invitational on Saturday, September 24.