Pitt to Debut Retro Alternates at ACC Cross Country Championships

Friday, October 26

Boston, Mass.

TBA

Pitt

ACC Cross Country Championships

Pitt to Debut Retro Alternates at ACC Cross Country Championships

10/25/2018 9:00:00 AM | Cross Country

Watch Women's Race (10 a.m.)Watch Men's Race (11 a.m.)Live Results

Panthers Return to Boston for Conference Championship

PITTSBURGH –The Pitt men's and women's cross country teams will be pitted against conference foes when they compete at the ACC Cross Country Championship in Franklin Park Friday. Boston College hosts the championship for the second time Friday morning in Boston, Mass.

The women's 6K final will begin at 10 a.m., followed by the men's 8K championship to be run at 11 a.m.

A recap from the meet, including results and times, will be posted to PittsburghPanthers.com. Live results can be found on FlashResults.com, and both races will be streamed live on ACC Network Extra.

The men's and women's cross country teams will debut Pitt Retro alternate uniforms at the ACC Championship Friday.

PANTHER ENTRIES
Competing at the championships will be:

Men: redshirt freshman Brian Spolarich, freshmen Evan Addison and Tyler Rollins, sophomores Zach Lefever and Josh Higgins, juniors Jackson Morton and Nick Wolk, and senior Matt McGoey.
Women: freshman Devon Hoernlein, sophomores Emily Burd, Mikaela Vlasic, and Ally Brunton, junior Sam Shields, and seniors Natalie Hilton, Erin Keelan, Miranda Salvo, Gillian Schriever and Makenzie Zeh.
Addison, Brunton, Burd, Higgins, Hilton, Hoernlein, Keelan, Rollins, Spolarich, and Vlasic will each make their championship debut Friday morning.

FAMILIAR TERRITORY

Friday the Panthers will return to Franklin Park for the second time this season to compete in the ACC Cross Country Championships. The Panthers visited Boston once on Sept. 21 for the annual Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown.
Pitt men will be met by No. 10 Syracuse, No. 14 Virginia, and No. 15 Notre Dame, among other ACC foes, while the women face off against nationally ranked No. 12 NC State, No. 18 Notre Dame, No. 22 Georgia Tech, and No. 25 Syracuse.

WHAT'S ON THE LINE

The All-ACC Cross Country Teams will be composed of the top 21 finishers in each Conference Championship.
Team scoring is based on individuals' order of finish. The top seven finishers' scores count towards the team score.

SCOUTING THE FIELD

The Syracuse men and NC State women enter this year's event as the defending champions. Syracuse men have claimed first place in the ACC tournament since 2013, and the Wolfpack women are working towards defending a third consecutive championship.
2017 All-ACC team members and 2017 ACC top finishers Dominique Clairmonte (19:59.0), Elly Henes (22:02.8), and Beth Taye (20:26.2) will be returning for NC State this year.
The Syracuse men enter the ACC Championships ranked tenth nationally and as the third team in ACC history to win five consecutive championships. Returning for the Orange, All-ACC performers Joe Dragon, Dominic Hockenbury and Aidan Tooker. Tooker and Dragon placed within the top ten individual finishes of the 2017 ACC championship, ending in sixth and ninth places respectively.
The NC State women hold a No. 12 national ranking to lead all ACC teams.

LAST TIME AT THE ACC CHAMPIONSHIPS

Last season, both the men's and women's squads finished in tenth place, falling back a few spots from the 2016 championship. The women's team accumulated 210 points, while the men bolstered 285 for themselves.
Gillian Schriever led Pitt on the women's side, coming in 36th place overall with a time of 21:14.3. Following her, Sam Shields in 45th (21:30.3), and Makenzie Zeh in 48th place (21:33.4).
Junior Nick Wolk returns for the Panthers this season after finishing first for Pitt last year with a time of 24:23.2, coming in 42nd place overall. The remainder of the Pitt men finished in the top 100 out of over 130 athletes, with other 2018 returners Matt McGoey in 76th place (25:13.0), Jackson Morton (25:35.1) in 86th and Zach Lefever (25:40.8) in 89th place.
Last year four Panthers were selected to the All-ACC Cross Country Academic Teams. Aaron Lauer, Nick Wolk, Miranda Salvo, and Gillian Schriever earned these honors after their performances in the classroom during the 2017 season.

LAST TIME OUT

Pitt raced against some of the top competition in the country at the Penn State National Open in University Park, Pa. on Oct. 12.
In the women's 6K, Pitt placed 21st of 28 teams. Junior Sam Shields finished first for the Panthers again in 36th place overall with a time of 21:17, followed by senior Natalie Hilton with a time of 22:03.
Junior Nick Wolk finished the men's 5.2 mile race in 28th place overall with a time of 25:37, being the first Panther to cross the finish line. Sophomore Zach Lefever placed within the top 100, in 62nd place with a time of 26:05.