Pitt Cross Country Completes Spiked Shoe Invitational

Friday, September 7

University Park, Pa.

5:30 p.m.

Pitt

Harry Groves Spiked Shoe Invitational

Pitt Cross Country Completes Spiked Shoe Invitational

9/7/2018 8:03:00 PM | Cross Country

Men's Results Women's Results

Underclassmen Shine for Panthers

PITTSBURGH – The Pitt men's and women's cross country teams completed its first of three meets to be run at the site of the 2018 NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional, racing at Penn State's Harry Groves Spiked Shoe Invitational at the Blue-White Golf Course in University Park, Pa., Friday evening.

"The men did a nice job being conservative yet still racing out front," Panthers' coach Brad Herbster said. "We wanted to work on communication and seeing this course. Zach [Lefever] did a heck of a job moving through the field. Evan [Addison] also ran up front for three miles and finished inside the top 20. [Tyler] Rollins raced well."

The men's squad placed sixth with 153 points, and the women took seventh with 209 points.

"For the women, I asked that they be conservative at the front end of the race, and they were conservative, but unfortunately we were just too far back at the start and could not move our top five up as much as we would have liked." Herbster said. "Devon [Hoernlein] and [Natalie] Hilton really moved up well, as did Emily Burd in the last mile. But now we can train for a couple of weeks and have higher expectations as we travel to Boston and preview the ACC Championship course."

Sophomore Zach Lefever was Pitt's top finisher for the men in the 5.2-mile race, taking 12th with a time of 26:25. Freshman Evan Addison placed 19th in his Pitt debut at 26:35. Fellow rookie Devon Hoernlein paced the Pitt women, placing 28th in the 6K race 22:16. Senior Natalie Hilton followed, coming in 35th at 22:27.

Pitt will compete at the Blue-White Golf Course twice more this season: at the Penn State National Open (Oct. 12), and finally at NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional (Nov. 9).

"Next for us: Boston will be the first true race as a unit and our expectations will increase for better results," Herbster said. "The men and women are looking good in practice and we need to transfer that to our racing, which I am confident we will do."

UP NEXT
The Panthers will get a preview of the 2018 ACC Cross Country Championship course when they visit Franklin Park in Boston, Mass., for the Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown Friday, Sept. 21.

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