Story Links

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The No. 15 Virginia men’s cross country team captured the inaugural Panorama Farms Invitational title on Friday evening, while the women’s squad – ranked No. 10 nationally – placed second behind No. 2 Villanova.

Course records were set in both the men’s and women’s races. For the women, team champion Villanova’s top four individual finishers all broke the previous course record to pace the Wildcats, while junior All-American Emil Heineking ran away with the men’s title, his third straight win this season, breaking Clemson’s Itay Magidi’s mark of 23:52.5 registered in 2006.

Heineking’s victory was over 20-seconds faster than the second-place finisher, as he completed the course in 23:16.19 and led the top seven finishers in bettering the previous course record. Heineking was followed by junior Graham Tribble and sophomore Ryan Collins, who took third and fourth respectively. Tribble finished in 23:43.63, while Collins clocked in at 23:45.67. Junior Trey Miller placed ninth in 23:57.16 and freshman Sintayehu Taye rounded out the scoring Cavaliers in 24:06.90 for 13th place.

Virginia’s women’s squad secured second place with 52 points, paced by junior Catherine White’s fifth place finish in 20:28.27. Sophomore Morgane Gay took home sixth place at 20:37.16, while the top seven finishers were from No. 2 Villanova and No. 10 Virginia. Senior Lauretta Dezubay took 12th in 21:10.15 and Stephanie Garcia was right behind her in 13th place in 21:17.84. Rounding out Virginia’s top-five runners was freshman Barbara Strehler in 20th place with a time of 22:02.40.

No. 2 Villanova easily took the women’s title with 17 points, followed by Virginia’s 52 markers. Tennessee and Texas A&M round out the top four with 69 and 117 points respectively.

With 30 points on the men’s side, Virginia won its third team title in as many tries this season, upsetting No. 11 Syracuse, who finished second with 41 points. Virginia also defeated other notable nationally ranked programs, including No. 24 Villanova (70 points) and No. 26 Duke (109 points), who finished third and fourth respectively.

The Cavaliers will be back in action on Saturday, Oct. 31 when they head to Cary, N.C., for the ACC Championships.

Print Friendly Version