The Seton Hill men’s and women’s cross country teams are ready to compete for the PSAC championships as they get down to the culminating points of their season.
After they competed in the PSAC championships, the teams go on to the NCAA Atlantic championships and then possibly on to the NCAA Division 2 national Championships. The women’s runner Meagen Carter has led the team in many of the races as a junior. Another junior, Steve Lafferty, has led the Griffins men in the majority of races as well.
In the last big race, which was the regional championships last year, Carter finished the 6K in a time of 23:13, which was good for 17th place as well as impressive, all region honors. Last year in the PSAC championships, both the men and women’s programs finished relatively in the middle of the pack, which was good but they are gunning for higher this year.
The men’s team brought in two freshmen to compliment their roster of 9 now. With the team finishing highest in 2nd place in the St. Vincent College Invitational and 7th in the Carnegie Mellon Invitational.
In the Carnegie Mellon Invitational, freshman Jarrod Sunderland led the team in the race, following was Lafferty asserting himself as one of the leaders of the team. The newcomers have helped the team out immensely as well as the upperclassmen leading by example.
“My years running cross country at SHU were an adventure. Every year provided new opportunities, from being apart of veteran teams to younger teams, competing in the WVIAC then moving to the PSAC, traveling across the country, and competing with different schools all over the country and NCAA divisions,” said Santo Belle senior runner.
The women’s squad has finished very high in all of the races that they have ran this fall, including the impressive first place finish at the beginning of the season at Saint Vincent College.
At the recent PSAC championships, both Chelsia Poole and Meagen Carter finished in the top 20 of the race, which helped them finish at 7th place for the PSAC championships. Not only has the team worked hard on the courses but they have worked hard in the classroom too.
One in particular is junior Jackie Kleinschrodt who earned one of the most impressive awards at the championships. Kleinschrodt had the highest GPA at the event and was named the “PSAC Women’s Cross Country Champion Scholar”, which is not only an honor for the cross country team, but helps out the whole athletic program at Seton Hill by getting recognition from the PSAC conference.
“The women have had a successful season winning the St. Vincent invite, and placing second at CMU invite. If not for a season ending injury to one of our top men – Peter Swain – on the team before the PSAC championship, the men’s season would have been a bit more complete as well,” said Griffins assistant coach Joe Sarver.