SU cross country posts 2 top-2 finishes at Harry Groves Spiked Shoe Invitational
Syracuse continued its strong start to the season on Friday when its men's team placed first and the women finished second at the Harry Groves Spiked Shoe Invitational. Ike Wood | Asst. Photo Editor
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Syracuse cross country returned to action on Friday morning at the Harry Groves Spiked Shoe Invitational, which was hosted by Penn State. SU snagged two top-two finishes, with the men’s team winning their race and the women’s squad snagging second.
In the women’s 6k, SU placed behind No. 15 Penn State. PSU snagged the first, third, fourth, fifth and sixth finishes. Sophomore Selma Anderson was Syracuse’s top runner, ending up in seventh place. Anderson finished with a time of 20:47.7, her third-best 6k time in her SU career.
Four seconds behind her was redshirt senior Emma Eastman, who’d placed 12th, eighth and 16th in the event in its three previous renditions. Redshirt senior Maddie Heintz finished 10th, sophomore Jayden Harberts placed 12th and redshirt senior Nyah Hernandez crossed the line in 13th.
The men’s team was even more dominant, securing the top five spots in the 5.2 Mile event. Senior Assaf Harari finished first with a time of 24:58.5. Harari had previously finished in third, fourth twice and sixth in the event.
Redshirt senior Sam Lawler finished in second, 1.4 seconds behind Harari. Lawler won the race last year, and his lowest-ever placement in his career is seventh. Redshirt freshman Ben Gableman ended in third, less than three seconds behind Harari. It marked Gabelman’s first event for Syracuse cross country after a solid track and field season last spring.
Redshirt sophomore Benne Anderson finished in fourth after placing sixth a year ago. He turned in a time of 25:03.9. Exactly one second behind Anderson was Connell Alford. The redshirt freshman ran his first collegiate cross country race in August at the Harry Lang Invitational, where he finished in sixth; today he improved his standing to fifth.
The men’s team had 14 runners compete, and their worst finish was 32nd place, as they dominated in Pennsylvania to win the men’s event. It marked the men’s fourth straight win at the Harry Groves Spiked Shoe Invitational.
Both teams return to action in two weeks at the Gans Creek Classic in Columbia, Missouri. Among the teams in attendance will be Ole Miss, whose head coach Adam Smith was an assistant coach at Syracuse from 2012-16.
