Ashland University fifth-year
Braeden Geist and junior
Wes Taylor were the top two collegiate finishers on Saturday (Oct. 10) morning at the Carnegie Mellon Invitational – leading Eagle men's cross country to a team 8K race title in Pittsburgh, Pa.
Then, in the women's race on Saturday, redshirt freshman
Reese Landis became 2-for-2 in winning collegiate cross country races, finishing first in that 5K event.
With 71 team points, the Ashland men were five points better than the second-place hosts – winning the 23-team event. Great Midwest Athletic Conference rival and No. 17-ranked Walsh was third with 93 points.
Geist's 8K PR of 24:32.8 left him in second place overall, but first among collegiate runners, while Taylor crossed the finish line in 24:40.0 to end in third place.
Yet another Eagle, junior
Isaiah Lanoy, placed in the top 10 – finishing sixth in 24:52.7.
Rounding out the men's top five for AU were sophomore
Samuel Thomas (14
th, 25:04.1) and fifth-year
Daylen Madison (51
st, 26:05.1).
Landis crossed the 5K women's finish line in 17:22.3, topping a pair of NCAA Division I West Virginia runners who placed in the top four.
That helped the Eagle women to a third-place team finish in the 24-team field. The D-I Mountaineers won with 45 team points, followed by Carnegie Mellon (69) and AU (107).
Ashland's top five on the women's side also featured sophomore
Ava Parrett (16
th, 18:23.2), senior
Molly Coleman (17
th, 18:28.2), sophomore
Zuri Immel (27
th, 5K PR or 18:48.1) and senior
Amandine Binet (46
th, 19:14.2).
The Ashland men and women will conclude the regular season on Oct. 24 at the University of Alabama in Huntsville Chargers XC Invitational.
