The men and women’s cross-country teams opened their season at the Murray H. Goodman Campus at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania on Friday, Sep. 3. This season will be the first fall cross country season since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was exciting to get the opportunity to compete today after all the challenges of the last 18 months. Overall, both the women and men competed well, but we have some areas we can greatly improve and that bodes well for the rest of the season,” said Head Coach Mike Nelson.
The Hawks competed in a large field against Lehigh University, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, Moravian University, Muhlenberg College, DeSales University, Rutgers University and West Virginia University (women’s team only).
The women’s team won the team title led by Junior Sammi Ragenklint, who ran a winning time of 21:33.5. Following Ragenklint was fifth-year senior Mackenzie Jones for fourth place and Sophomore Allie Pierontoni coming in eighth.
During the men’s race, the team finished fourth out of eight teams. Senior Louis DiLaurenzio led the team earning fourth place with a time of 18:06. DiLaurenzio was followed in order by Freshman Luke Miller in 20th, Junior Cameron Janovic in 28th, Senior Michael Pavicic in 34th, and Sophomore Tyler Clifford in 35th.
The meet also had many highlights from new athletes on the team. Sophomore transfer Marisa Kilgarriff finished in fifteenth and Freshman Rachael Mongeau placed thirty third. For the men, there were three freshmen who made the top fifty in the race.
Nelson discussed insight about the meet, “Sammi getting the individual win was awesome and is a testament of all the hard work she has put in. The women got the team victory, which is an encouraging way to start the fall. We’ll be back at this course in four weeks and we’ll be ready to take it up a notch”
After the meet, both DiLaurenzio and Ragenklint were announced by the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference as Cross-Country Student-Athletes of the week. Both athletes ran the fastest (Monmouth University) 6k times on the Lehigh course.
Up next, the Hawks will compete at the Iona Meet of Champions at Van Cortlandt Park in Bronx, New York on Friday, Sep. 17
