Delaware club cross country kicked off the championship season at the NIRCA Cross Country Mid-Atlantic Regional at Lehigh University. The runner-friendly course set the stage for the Delaware athletes to show what they could do.
The women kicked off the morning with an impressive 6th place team finish. Out of the top seven girls, six of them set new personal bests. Freshman Jade Barrett led Delaware once again, this time setting a new personal record by over a minute at 24:45, as well as finishing in the top 25. Junior Jenna Mlecko also set a new personal record right behind her, getting below 25 minutes for the first time, crossing the line at 24:59. The third and fourth Delaware spots went to freshmen Kaitlyn Burke and Hannah Heredia, who each set personal bests at 25:46.4 and 25:58.3 respectively. Freshman CJ Williams finished up the scoring five with a massive minute and a half improvement on her best time, coming in at 26:02. Finishing right behind her at 26:04 with a minute improvement on her best time was junior Natalie Pinto, and rounding out the top seven was senior Madeleine Dorley, who finished in 27:02.9.
Due to a results issue, it is unknown what the exact position the men placed, but it is known that they finished well enough to qualify for Nationals. The only thing known for sure about the men’s race is that senior Alex Horgan put out a dominant performance, winning the race with a time of 25:25, which missed his all-time club record by only two seconds. Despite not putting in their best performances, freshmen Matthew Kwiatkowski and Alejandro Lobo still put up impressive performances, coming in at 27:01 and 28:00 respectively. Sophomore Aravind Arunachalam set a new best for himself at 28:09 to finish fourth for Delaware, followed closely by senior Sasha Latina, who finished in 28:20. Completing the top seven was senior Chris Calandra and junior Dan Giron, with Calandra setting a new personal best of 28:41, and Giron continuing his sub-30 minute streak going 29:51.4.
With one race to go, Delaware is ready to finish the season strong at the NIRCA Cross Country National Championships on November 12th in Richmond, Virginia.
Full results can be found here.
