UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. –– For the second week in a row, first year
Anna Villavicencio and
Noah Smith paced the women and men's cross country teams while competing at Penn State's Spike Shoe Invitational on Friday.
Smith, who came in 20th overall, led for the second week in a row, and in his career, closing out at 26:15.7. The top three runners were a repeat of the last outing, as Emmett Engelhart (26:24.0) and
Marcus Valenzuela (26:26.9) again crossed the line nearly side-by-side in the two and three spots; the duo was 26th and 26th.
Ty Parker moved up from AU's seventh spot last week to fourth, while first year
Jackson Farmer, who was ninth last week, rounded out American's top five.
Villavicencio is having a prolific start to her collegiate career, leading the Eagles once again with a 21:56.6 finish good enough for 33rd.
Shealyn Brochu (22:29.8) and
Emma Colavito (22:47.8) were second and third for AU this week, flipping positions from last time out.
Zoe Rector, at 23:00.0, maintained her four spot for American, as did
Natasha Cohen (23:22.2); Rector came in 74th and Cohen 83rd in a field of over 140 runners.
The Eagles are off from racing for two weeks and will be back in action on Oct. 2 at the Paul Short Run hosted by Lehigh in Bethlehem, Pa.
Coaches' Corner
"On the men's side we took a very good step forward from our competitiveness last week to this: the guys were much more aggressive and race in the 'right' places," shared head coach
Sean Graham. "We had a very strong pack of four up front for much of the race, once again led by
Noah Smith with
Jaden Frederick,
Emmett Engelhardt, and
Marcus Valenzuela right there as well. The second pack ran aggressively too, with
Ty Parker and first year
Jackson Farmer having solid days.
"I'm really happy with the intentionality today; it will continue to serve us well in the next three weeks of training. It was a solid day all around with a few more clear things to work on in this next phase of training."
"It was good teamwork from the women; we had most of the team finishing a teammate," said assistant coach Jordyn Pugh about the women's squad. "Going into this next training block, we know where we need to get a little bit more specific with focus. Overall, a pretty good day that showed us exactly where we need to go. Freshmen ran strong for their first 6k, led by
Anna Villavicencio!"
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Men's 5.2 Mile Results, 5th
20.
Noah Smith, 26:15.7
26.
Emmett Engelhardt, 26:24.0
27.
Marcus Valenzuela, 26:26.9
37.
Ty Parker, 26:47.5
52.
Jackson Farmer, 27:27.2
54.
Zack Zerbe, 27:29.1
57.
Brandon Morrow, 27:30.8
60.
Barak Goldstein, 27:33.3
83.
Miles Wicks, 28:27.6
85.
Aidan Nelson, 28:36.1
Women's 6k Results, 8th
33.
Anna Villavicencio, 21:56.6
54.
Shealyn Brochu, 22:29.8
68.
Emma Colavito, 22:47.8
74.
Zoe Rector, 23:00.8
83.
Natasha Cohen, 23:22.2
86.
Marisol Montoya, 23:23.3
94.
Charli McCue, 23:37.7
97.
Estella Miller, 23:41.4
99.
Charlotte Orr, 23:47.0
103.
Georgina Chalow, 23:55.0
108.
Kara Langbaum, 24:24.1
113.
Fiona Murphy, 24:48.6
118.
Scarlett Lestina, 25:59.4
