XC hosts Invitation, men second and women seventh

XC hosts Invitation, men second and women seventh
October 14, 2019

With the United States Collegiate Athletic Association National Championships less than a month away, the Penn State Fayette cross country teams hosted its Invitational on Saturday.

 The men finished second and the women came in seventh.

Head coach Joe Carei spoke about the day.

"It was a great run by the men and they are really pulling it together," he said. "With the women, they once again saw big strides in their racing and their training is starting to pay off."

On the men's side, Fayette finished in 2:25:02 between its top five finishers and came in second behind Pitt XC, who had a total time of 2:23:49.

Nyoah Marteny (Perryopolis, PA/Frazier) had Fayette's highest showing with a third-place finish in 5:42.8, 11.2 seconds behind the winning time of 5:31.6 by Hagerstown CC's Henry Schmidt.

Drew Erdman (Greensburg, PA/Greensburg Salem HS) also finished in the top ten as his time of 5:47 was good for 10th place.

Three other Nittany Lions finished in the top 20 as Aaron Mylan (Rices Landing, PA/Jefferson-Morgan HS) finished 13th in 5:48, Joe O'Connell (West Mifflin, PA/West Mifflin HS) was 17th in 5:50 and Ryan Semle (Uxbridge, MA/Uxbridge HS) was 19th in 5:51.

Mitchell Minda (Elizabeth, PA/Elizabeth Forward HS) came in 21st with a time of 5:54, Ben Witt (Uniontown, PA/Uniontown HS) was 23rd in 5:55 and Arlo Helms (Connellsville, PA/Connellsville HS) was 43rd with a time of 6:19.

"We made a couple of mistakes early in the race, but they held on to finish second," Carei said of the men's team. "We saw a few veterans step up today, which I what we need coming into championship season."

On the women's side, Fayette finished seventh with a team time of 2:57:00 with Pitt XC winning with a time of 2:06:12.

Kira Nicholson (Scottdale, PA/Southmoreland HS) led the way for Fayette with a time of 8:40.6 to finish in 42nd with Casey Falcon (Beth-Center, PA/Beth-Center HS) finishing 49th in a time of 9:04.

Fayette is at Penn State Mont Alto on Saturday, October 26 before heading to the USCAA Championships on Saturday, November 9.

For more information on the team, go to https://www.psfathletics.com/sports/xc/index.