Converse Kickoff Men's & Women's Results
The Emory men’s and women’s cross country teams competed in the Converse Kickoff Saturday morning where both teams excelled against their competition.
The men’s team finished with a total of 67 points which had them sitting atop the leaderboard amongst the field of 26 teams. The Eagles finished four points ahead of second place finisher Wingate (71 points) while Anderson (SC) held down third with 105 points. The only DIII ranked opponent, No. 27 Washington and Lee, came in 10th place with a score of 264.
Senior Brett Lucas led all Emory runners with a time 25:53.9, finishing in ninth place out of the 272 runners competing. Joshua Chepkesir of UNC Pembroke finished the race in first place with a time of 25:02.9. Freshman David Evans finished the course in 26:03.6 to put him at 11th overall and second of all Emory runners in his first race against out-of-region foes. Senior John Cox managed a 14th-place finish with a time of 26:10.4. Juniors Andrew Pahnke (26:19.8) and Justin Pecore (26:23.2) filled the last two scoring slots for the Eagles.
The women’s team, ranked No. 25 in DIII according to the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Poll, finished 61 points, good for a second place effort in the field of 23 teams. The only team ahead of Emory was Lenoir-Rhyne, who edged out the Eagles with 53 points.
Junior Annika Urban ran a marvelous race finishing second overall with a time of 21:52.3. Urban narrowly lost out to Wingate runner Lara Orrock who paced the 208-runner field with a 6K mark of 21:43.3. Freshman Liesl Scherrer (22:45.8) pulled off her second consecutive top-ten finish as well as a second-place finish amongst all Emory runners. In her first race of the season, senior Bella Racette completed the course in a time of 23:05.7. Freshman Milan Cambon (23:18.7, 19th place) and junior Lauren Anshen (23:21.8, 20th place) closed out scoring for the Eagles just edging teammate Ellie Long (23:29.6, 21st place) as all three runners finished back-to-back-to-back.
The Emory cross country teams will next compete in Louisville, Kentucky and Fairburn, Georgia as each team will split their rosters to race on Saturday, Oct. 2nd.