Cross Country Team Competes at Cal-U Invitational

CALIFORNIA, PA-Franciscan University of Steubenville's men's and women's cross country teams ventured to California, PA this Saturday to compete in the Cal-U Cross Country Invitational. The men's team placed 8^th of 11 teams while the women placed 3^rd of 12 teams.

The men's team showed improvement over last week's results. Hiram College outran Franciscan last week at the Westminster Invitational and came in 9th place behind Franciscan by 30 points this week. Top performances for Franciscan included freshman Bill Jones who again led the men's team by placing 6th overall in the 8k race in 27:01. Freshman Kevin Leroy took second for the team placing 38th overall with a time of 29:07. Junior Kevin Codd placed 54th overall by shattering last week's time by 35 seconds running 30:27.

The women's team put forth an outstanding effort by losing only to NCAA Division II teams Slippery Rock University and Grove City College while still beating a DI school, Saint Francis University. Commenting on the women's team's results, head coach Dr. Dan Kuebler recounts, "[Our chaplain,] Father Gregory's feast day was this last week so the team wanted to give him a present by beating Saint Francis University at his request".

Notable racers on the women's team included junior Erin Bliss who took the lead for her team placing 8th of 155 women in a time of 19:48. Sophomore Monica Rust followed behind running the 5k in 20:10 and placing 12^th overall. Also running respectable times were freshman Anna Hogan, placing 16th overall in a time of 20:25, sophomore Anna Scarnecchia finishing 28th in 21:11 and freshman Jessica Schanilec running 21:50 for 40th place.

Both teams will be training hard in preparation for their next race at the National Catholic Championships in South Bend, Indiana on September 19th. Races are set to start at 2:30 pm.