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Women Place Top 3 and Men Win on Their Home Course

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Delaware club cross country made the short trip up to White Clay Creek State Park to host the Delaware Invitational. Along with the University of Delaware Women’s Cross Country team, the teams face the grueling course in a battle to defend their home turf.

The women started off the day with a third place finish in the 6k. Freshman Jade Barrett returned to competition, once again leading the team with a time of 26:37.83, placing 16th. The tandem of junior Jenna Mlecko (27:07.02) and freshman Kaitlyn Burke (27:21.59) took the final two podium spots for Delaware, both finishing in the top 20 overall. Freshman Hannah Heredia finished close behind them, finishing 23rd place in 27:35.9. Junior Natalie Pinto (28:28.54), freshman CJ Williams (28:35.32), and senior Madeleine Dorley (28:53.82) came in with back-to-back-to-back finishes to complete Delaware’s top seven. 

The men followed with a first place finish in the 8k. Senior Alex Horgan had complete control of the race, winning the whole meet with a time of 26:49.76. His time puts him above Mike Durkin for 5th place on the Delaware Club Cross Country leaderboard for the White Clay course. Freshman Alejandro Lobo (29:05.04) also cracked the top ten with a 10th place finish, followed closely by fellow freshman Evan Diefenbeck (29:15.62), who finished 11th. Rounding out the scoring five was junior Dan Giron (30:33.14) and senior Chris Calandra (30:41.01) in his first 8k of the season. Senior Sasha Latina followed with a time of 30:56.84, and freshman Brenden Debrosse cracked the top seven for the first time with a personal best 31:42.37.

Delaware’s sights now are pointed to NIRCA Regionals at Lehigh on October 29th, where they will try to qualify as a team for nationals.

Full results can be found here.

Men Place 4th and Women Place 14th in an Electric DeSales Invitational

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The Delaware cross country team went up to DeSales University to compete against Division II and Division III at the DeSales Invitational. The course featured rolling hills through cornfields as well as a run through DeSales’ campus, but the unbalanced course led the way for many personal bests as the season really ramps up.

The men kicked off the meet with a 4th place team finish in the 8k. The team was led by senior Alex Horgan, who edged out a Swarthmore runner to secure second place with a time of 25:29.8. Freshman Matthew Kwiatkowski followed Horgan with a 10th place finish and his own personal best of 26:23.4, which passed Chris Kitson for 10th place on the all time cross country 8k leaderboard. He’s looking to climb up the leaderboard later on, as he said that he has already surpassed his time expectations for the season. Freshman Alejandro Lobo and junior Dan Giron took the next two spots for Delaware with personal bests of 27:28.5 and 28:05.6 respectively. The scoring five for Delaware was rounded out by freshman Evan Diefenbeck, who came in 69th place with a time of 28:14.8. Coming in not too far behind to finish off Delarare’s top seven was senior Sasha Latina at 28:24.9 and sophomore Aravind Arunachalam at 28:32.8.

The women followed the men with a 14th place team finish and having five of their top seven improving their times from two weeks ago by at least a minute. Leading the charge was freshman Kaitlyn Burke, who set a new personal best of 26:09.2, and senior Jenna Mlecko, who followed right behind at 26:10.4. Delaware’s third spot was junior Natalie Pinto, who improved on her personal best, coming in at 27:09.0. Rounding out the scoring five was senior Madeleine Dorley and freshman Camila Montes, who both set new season best times by over a minute at 27:40.8 and 28:04.4 respectively. Making their top seven debuts were Maddy Ciskowski and Leah Goodman, who finished close together at 28:10.7 and 28:17.5.

The meet also featured two Delaware XCTF alumni. Former club president Emily Hansell and former treasurer Schuyler Reed came out to wear the Delaware colors for one more time. 

Delaware now moves on to their home meet, the Delaware Invitational, on October 15th.Full meet results can be found here.

Freshman Class Headline Start of the Collegiate Season

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The Delaware club cross country team officially started their season with their first NIRCA sanctioned race at the DC Invitational. The team returned to the DC for the time since 2017. This was also the first meet the team was able to debut their new uniforms!

The women led the meet off in the 6,000 meter race. Four freshmen finished inside Delaware’s top seven. Freshman Jade Barrett led the charge with a 7th place finish with a time of 26:01. Fellow freshman Hannah Heredia got second for the team, placing 12th at 27:02. Junior Natalie Pinto came in 14th place at 27:21 to start the season off with a personal best, and coming in not far behind in 16th place at 27:34 was freshman Kaitlyn Burke. Freshman Emma Szydlow finished off the scoring group at 28:35 in her first collegiate race. Madeleine Dorley and Alyssa Blocker rounded out the top seven at 28:43 and 29:12, followed right behind by Madelyn Ciskowski two seconds later.

The men followed the women in the 8k with a clear team victory. Senior Alex Horgan led the field with 26:09, keeping up his winning ways from last year. The freshman trio of Matthew Kwiatkowski, Alejandro Lobo, and Evan Diefenback took the next few spots for Delaware in their collegiate debuts. Kwiatkowski took second at 27:25, Lobo came fifth in 27:49, and Diefenback came seventh in 28:18. Senior Sasha Latina and junior Dan Giron rounded out the top ten spots and Delaware’s top six in 29:12 and 29:48 respectively. The seventh spot when to Arvind Arunachalam in his season debut, who finished a step ahead of fellow sophomore Caden MacHenry, both setting personal bests of 30:44. 

Delaware now looks forward two weeks to October 8th for the DeSalles XC Invitational to face NCAA teams.

Full meet results can be found here.

Men’s team starting out their meet-winning 8k
Leah Goodman, Madelyn Ciskowski, and Alyssa Blocker in the beginning of their race
Alex Horgan with a massive lead on the rest of the field in route to his victory
Freshman Michael Toy fighting for a better position at the finish

Delaware Cross Country Takes Control of the Season Opener 5k

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A new season has begun for the University of Delaware Club Cross Country and Track and Field team. Distance, sprinters, and alumni alike, went down to Dewey Beach, Delaware for the 46th Gary P. Lister Bottle & Cork 5k road race. 

Despite it being very early in the season, the team put up many good performances, including complete ownership of the overall top 10 from nine current Delaware runners and one alumni. 

Senior Alex Horgan finished first with a dominating 15:47.3. He finished over a whole minute ahead of junior Dan Giron (16:51.3) and senior Sasha Latina (16:59.9), who rounded out the podium. Freshman Evan Diefenbeck (17:04.5) and first year competing sophomore Arvind Arunachalam (17:12.8) showed their potential with 4th and 5th place finishes. Delaware rounded out the top 10 with sophomore Brett Balthis (17:21.0), senior Chris Calandra (18:09.4), freshman Branden Debrosse (18:12.1), and sophomore Caden MacHenry (18:15.6). 

On the women’s side, freshman Geneva Laur led the Delaware pack with a second place finish of 21:21.3. The freshman girls continued their reign with CJ Williams securing the third podium spot at 21:34.7 and Jade Barrett getting Delaware’s third spot at 21:56.5. Junior Jenna Mlecko (22:05.6) and freshman Hannah Heredia (22:09.7) went back-to-back to attain the final top five spots for Delaware. Rounding out the Delaware top seven placing 8th and 9th overall came junior Natalie Pinto at 22:26.2 and sophomore Lauren Pollock at 22:47.5.

The cross country team will get their collegiate season started on September 24th at the DC Invitational. 

Full meet results can be found here.

Davin, Horgan Land on All-Time List, Men’s Team Takes Fourth at Capital Relays

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The Delaware club track team began its 2022 outdoor campaign at American University’s Capital Relays on Saturday. Two Blue Hens etched their way into the outdoor all-time list in the 5,000-meter race.

Senior Bailey Davin surpassed Molly Doyle’s 2019 NIRCA Nationals time of 19:25.81 to become fourth all-time in the team record books. Davin finished with a time of 19:22 and secured five points for Delaware. Sophomore Jenna Mlecko secured another point for the Hens with her eighth place finish of 20:44. Madeleine Dorley placed 11th in the event with a time of 21:45.

In the women’s 800-meter Chloe Gerstenbacher took 11th place in 2:45.74. Aine Grubb followed shortly after for Delaware with a time of 2:53.99.

Davin and Mlecko combined for the women’s team’s six points on the day.

Alex Horgan followed suit finishing second in the 5k, clocking in with a time of 15:32. Horgan’s time puts him seventh on the all-time outdoor performance list, surpassing Brandon Quanci. Horgan along with fellow junior Sasha Latina grabbed a total of nine points for Delaware in the first race of the day. 

Horgan and Ryan Lazev both finished in the top ten spots of the 800-meter run to secure four points for Delaware. Horgan doubled back after the 5k in 2:08.47, while Lazev grabbed the final scoring position with a time of 2:11.39.

The Hens grabbed another 10 points in the 4×100-meter relay as clean handoffs propelled Delaware past James Madison. Delaware’s 4×400-meter relay placed sixth with a time of 3:56.10, grabbing three points.

Sprinters Josiah Taylor and John Shaw combined to score five points for Delaware on the individual side in the 100-meter dash. Taylor finished with a sub-12 time of 11.91 and Shaw close behind in 12.38. Shaw combined to score eight points for Delaware after placing third in the 200-meter dash in 25.44. Drew Huffer finished right behind Shaw in fourth place with a time of 26.10. 

Delaware scored a total of 29 points in the sprint events. The men finished fourth with 44 points.

The Blue Hens will get a break to recover and continue their training for the team’s next meet on Mar. 20. Delaware is set to compete at the Club Penn Relays in Philadelphia.