Pioneer women place seventh and men 15th at Carnegie Mellon Invitational
Cross Country has five athletes run collegiate bests

Oct. 13, 2007
PITTSBURGH, Pa. — Head Coach Derek Stanley's cross country team competed at the Carnegie Mellon Invitational Saturday (Oct. 13) morning. Both the men and women put together complete team efforts, which resulted in solid finishes at the meet.

The Pioneer women, who did not compete at last week's All-Ohio Championships to rest some injuries, compiled 199 points to place seventh in the 20-team field. Marietta's men finished with 367 points, which was good enough for 15th place in the 23-team competition.

Indiana University of Pennsylvania won the women's competition with 53 points, while host Carnegie Mellon took the men's title with 31 points.

Sophomore Kaity Smith (Essex Junction, Vt.) had a breakout performance Saturday, running the 5K in career-best 19:59.68 to place 21st. Sophomore Randi Robertson (Avon Lake) was not far behind Smith. She took 26th place, finishing in 20:05.33. Junior Jessi Larrison (Batavia) was the third Pioneer to cross the line, taking 35th with a time of 20:15.67. Sophomore Shannon McDonald (Lorain/Amherst Steele) placed 61st, finishing the 5K in 20:57.71. Sophomore Logan Wern (North Canton/Hoover) rounded out the scoring with an 80th place finish. Wern ran a collegiate-best 21:32.20. Also running a collegiate best was sophomore Brenda Puckett (Eaton/Preble Shawness), who knocked a minute of her previous best time, finishing in 21:59.43 to place 93rd. Freshman Meghan Cline (Dublin/Coffman) also competed Saturday. She finished in 23:16.77 and placed 123rd.

"This was the women's best team race all season," Stanley said. The women exceeded my expectation for the meet. We’re healthy, now we just need to get faster.”

Marietta's men were paced by sophomore Michael Siringer (Willowick), who placed 82nd after finishing the 8K in collegiate best 27:59.32. Senior John Hull (Scot Depot, W.Va./Winfield) was right on Siringer's tail. Hull took 85th, crossing the line in 28:03.90. Senior Harrison Potter (Rochester, N.Y./Gates Chili) was third, taking 92nd after finishing in 28:15.57. Freshman Max Kenngott (Akron/St. Vincent-St. Mary) also ran a collegiate best and took 96th with a final time of 28:19.89. Sophomore Corey Blattler (Barnsville) was Marietta's fifth runner to finish. He took 123rd (29:05.87). Junior Joseph Wynes (East Aurora, N.Y.) had his second best collegiate race and placed 126th (29:10.80). Rounding out the Pioneers' runners were sophomore Cody Thomas (North Olmsted) (137th/29:24.94), sophomore Kent Reiber (Avon Lake) (154th/29:58.72) and sophomore Mario D'Amico (Shadyside) (160th/30:04.67).

"It was also a great team effort from the men today," Stanley said. " A couple guys stepped it up today. We have our pack, now we just have to move it closer to the front of the race.”