LOCK HAVEN, Pa. - - The Wilmington University cross country teams competed in the densely populated Lock Haven Invitational on Saturday, running amongst 34 teams on the West Branch Cross Country Course.
The men finished 23rd out of 34 teams while the women finished 29th out of 34 teams on Saturday.
Running in her first meet of the year, Yailynn Ramirez paced the women in the 6K event with a time of 24:44.50, finishing in 164th overall to earn 142 team points. Tiffany Banning finished 187th overall to earn 160 points with a time of 25:12.80. Taylor Burchfield rank the 6K course in 25:20.30 to finish 194th overall, good enough for 165 points. Alexa Crowell earned the Wildcats 178 points with a 212nd place finish, crossing the line in 25:49.40 while Camila Cornejo closed out the team scoring for the Wildcats with 190 points, coming in 229th place with a time of 26:29.80. Samantha Banning closed out the Wildcats on the course for the women with a 249th place finish, finishing in 27:35.00.
Scranton's Jessica Hoffman won the event by nearly five seconds, beating the field of 285 runners with a time of 21:15.40. Division I Cornell won the women's meet, earning 37 points with five finishers inside the Top 11. Division II Wayne State (Mich.) came in second with 67 points.
Dan Wyshinski led the men with a 51st place finish, earning the team 40 points with an 8K time of 25:54.50. Trent Taylor was the second Wildcat to cross the line, finishing 60th overall for 47 points in a time of 26:11.90. Hayward Boutte finished 222nd for 177 points for the Wildcats, running the course in 28:56.90 while Logan Strouse ran his first race of the year in 30:23.00, good enough for 250th place and 197 team points. Nicholas Licup completed the Wildcats on the course with a 272nd place finish for 215 points, finishing in 32:05.70.
Cornell won the men's event as well, finishing with 20 points by having runners finish first, third, fourth, fifth, and seventh. The Big Red's Perry Mackinnon won the event by out-kicking his opponent from Wayne State (Mich.) with a time of 24:15.10. Buchanan came in second with a time of 24:15.50.
The Wildcats run at the Don Cathcart Invitational next weekend, starting a string of four events in the month of October. The event, hosted by Salisbury University, will start with the women's race at 2:00 p.m.