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The Syracuse cross country teams competed in Cary, North Carolina at the Atlantic Coast Conference Championships, as the men looked to repeat their championship from 2019. 

After sweeping the two regular season meets against Army and Boston College, Syracuse climbed to No. 17 in the USTFCCCA coaches rankings ahead of the championship weekend. Both men’s and women’s teams, however, took a disappointing step back on Friday.

No. 6 Notre Dame ran away with the men’s victory as it won its 2nd ACC title in the last three seasons. The Orange men placed sixth overall with a total score of 135- one more point than 5th place Duke, who entered the weekend unranked.

Senior Joe Dragon (23:30.0) led the Orange with a 10th place finish in the 8k and crossed the finish line 0.7 seconds behind Virginia Tech sophomore Antonio Lopez Segura. Dragon was one of four Syracuse runners to finish in the top-30, with junior Nathan Henderson (23:52.5) placing 30th.

Freshman Silas Derfel (23:48.7) finished 26th and was Syracuse’s highest-placing freshman on the day and the 5th-highest-placing freshman out of all first-year runners.

JP Trojan (24:18.4), who placed first in both regular season meetings this year, finished 50th. His time on Friday was 23 seconds faster than his first-place finish at the Battle in Beantown on Sept. 25th.

Senior Amanda Vestri (20:06.1) finished second out of all runners in the women’s 6k meet. The women entered looking to repeat the same success they found in 2019, but placed 8th. No. 4 NC State finished first on the day, as the Wolfpack women won their fifth-straight ACC championship.

Vestri was the only SU women’s runner to finish in the top-40, with Savannah Roark (21:08.6) finishing 43rd as the second-highest Syracuse runner. Roark also finished as the highest-placing Syracuse freshman on the day. Fellow freshman Reilly Zink (21:42.5) placed 69th, crossing 0.2 seconds behind Wake Forest Junior Elise Wright.

 

Published on October 30, 2020 at 6:49 pm

Contact Anthony: aalandt@syr.edu | @anthonyalandt