Cross Country Teams Headed to NCAA Regionals
The men's and women's cross country teams look to use the momentum from the AMCC Championships in late October in order to thrive this Saturday in the NCAA Mideast Regionals at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa. The men run at 11:00 a.m. followed by the women at 12 noon.
The squads hope that their runners can keep up the good work in order to be successful at the Regionals. For the women's team, Jessica Knapp (Erie/McDowell) has been steady throughout her entire career and after finishing first at the AMCCs is expected to be at the front. Claire Manelick (Youngsville/Youngsville), Leslie Gentile (Corry/Corry), and Willa Paterson (Woodward/Penns Valley) also look to do well. Last season the team placed a school-best sixth place out of thirty-seven teams at the NCAA Regional at Dickinson. Knapp paced the team's strong finish and completed the course in 23:25. Knapp finished fifteenth overall out of 263 runners and was named to the All-Mideast Region.
As for the men's squad, Brad Ruffo (West Middlesex/West Middlesex) placed second out of fifty runners at AMCCs and hopes that he can fair just as well this Saturday. Senior Tim Schultheis (Latrobe/Greater Latrobe), Brent Beauseigner (Woodland/Bellefonte), Reuben Smith (Union City/Union City) and Craig Davis (Erie/Harborcreek) are also pumped for Saturday's battle. A year ago, the men's team took seventeenth place led by Brad Ruffo who placed sixty-fourth in the men's race in 28:07 beating eighty-five other runners. For his performance he was named to the All-Mideast Freshman Team.
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