In its last meet before looking to defend its Presidents’ Athletic Conference Championship title in two weeks, the Waynesburg University women’s cross country team raced against some of the top schools in the nation this past Saturday, Oct. 14, at the Rowen Inter-Regional Border Battle. The Yellow Jackets placed 10th out of 24 teams in the race, and head coach Chris Hardie was pleased with the performance.

“I think they ran pretty well,” Hardie said. “Obviously the competition was really stacked, so for us, it was a chance to see where the team stacked up regionally and nationally, and I think we got a good idea of that… In terms of performance, I think they did really well – 10th out of 24 [teams] with a lot of regionally and nationally ranked schools is pretty good. So we’re going out of it feeling pretty positive about the day, that’s for sure.”

Pacing the Jackets, was senior Angie Marchetti, who placed 21st out of 239 runners with a time of 22:32. In second for Waynesburg was junior Teghan Simonton, who placed 36th at 22:59. Sophomore Taylor Clarkson rounded out the top three with a time of 23:39, placing 77th.

Hardie saw the race as not only a chance for Waynesburg to build its national profile as a team, but as individuals as well.

“One of the other things is we wanted to find out where our girls stack individually [and] if any of them have a shot to make nationals,” Hardie said. “I think coming out of that meet, Angie and Teghan both put themselves at least probably on the fringe of getting a selection for nationals. I think they’re in the discussion, and that’s good motivation for them.”

Two schools in particular that Hardie had his eye on coming into the meet were Haverford, ranked fourth in the region and Salisbury ranked sixth. Salisbury finished 16th in the race, while Haverford placed fourth.

“It was a challenge that we set for the girls was to see what we could do head-to-head with Salisbury as well as Haverford,” Hardie said. “Haverford we found out is a pretty good team. They beat us pretty good.”

Hardie said that the team is working towards getting back to where it was last season, which saw the school win its first-ever Presidents’ Athletic Conference Championship,

“We definitely have some work to do,” Hardie said. “We know we’re not in the same situation that we were in last year where we were probably a top-five school [in the region]. We’re probably not a top-five school [this year.] We need to really work to get there.”

Rounding out the top seven for Waynesburg, were senior Elinore Loch in 78th, sophomore Malarie Yoder at 96th, sophomore Mary Beth Cunningham in 115th and junior Liz Trump at 131st. Hardie sees depth as one of the teams’ strengths.

“It’s great,” Hardie said.  “They have really good depth. We’re about five or six strong depending on how [senior Julie Gerber] feels on any given day. She’s going to round out pretty well whenever she gets back into shape from her foot injury. We’re really solid with I think our six runners.”

Although the men’s team did not run collectively at Rowen, four runners; freshman Mac Colomb, junior Josh Olive, sophomore Michael Capelli and senior Matthew Shinkle ran individually. Colomb was the only one of the four who finished in the top 200, placing 158th out of 250 runners with a time of 27:53. Olive, Capelli and Shinkle followed in the rankings.

“They had a so-so day,” Hardie said. “I think they all had a lot of excitement going into this race because it was really flat and really fast…even during the walkthrough on Friday when we got there early, they were really excited coming out of that. So I don’t think that they had an excellent day. I think they ran pretty well though.”

Both teams will next be competing in New Wilmington for the PAC Championships Oct. 28. The men’s race will begin at 11 a.m., while the women will follow at noon. Hardie said that a key for the men’s team to improve upon last years finish will be controlling the emotion of the moment

“They’re such a young group,” Hardie said.  “They just have to implement the plan that we put out there instead of getting wrapped up in the adrenaline of the opening mile and it being a championship, which they tend to do. So they’ve got to kind of probably temper emotion a little bit and hold back maybe and then really go for it in the second half of that race…”

For Hardie, the keys to the women repeating will be health, as well as upping their intensity levels.

“For the women, I think really the key is to stay healthy,” Hardie said. “We can’t afford a devastating injury. If one of the top five or top six goes down that could really hinder our chances to repeat.”

Hardie said that as the race draws near, the speed has picked up.

“We do a little bit more speed work just so they’re faster their opening mile,” Hardie said. “We always plan for that so it’s nothing we’re going to actually change. It’s a lot of shorter stuff just to get them to turn over quicker.”