STEUBENVILLE, Ohio – Lady Baron cross country won the AMCC Cross Country Championship Meet without their top runner while the Baron men finished as conference runners up. Many of Franciscan's runners ran the best races of their lives despite Franciscan's hilly course and cold temperatures.
The women's team overcame the absence of top runner Sydney Novak with an impressive pack that took ninth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, and fifteenth place. Those placements were enough to beat defending conference champion Penn St. – Behrend by six points.
"It's a testament to how deep our team is an how strong our pack is. From mile one onwards we were moving up and passing people," head coach Dan Kuebler said. "Each one of them really stepped it up and had the race of the year."
Kuebler said he was proud of how the girls handled seeing Novak have to drop out of the race within the first mile.
"At about a mile they all ran by me and seemed to be panicked. I told them 'hey, you're fine. We've got a good pack and we can still win,'" Kuebler said. "They looked around and saw their whole pack together and kept moving on."
Leading that pack with a time of 26:07 was sophomore Leah Kaisler who had never finished as the team's top runner at any point in her career. She was followed by junior Kate Porter, senior Allison Huelseman, junior Colene Smith, senior Elise Zajicek, and senior Randi Yeager who all finished within a minute of each other.
"That was Leah's last race as an academic senior and she's such a gutsy runner," Kuebler said. "That was by far the best race she's ever had at Franciscan."
For the Franciscan men it was also a strong pack that led the way, this time to a second place finish. A group of five Barons finished within ten places of each other, including junior John Redmond in tenth place, freshman Tim Jackson in thirteenth, freshman Graham Martin in fourteenth, and sophomore Emmett Delaney in sixteenth.
"A lot of them ran a minute faster than their last time on this course and a lot of them ran their best races of the year," Kuebler said. "I couldn't ask any more from them. They ran a smart race and I'm proud of them."
The Barons were led by senior captain Patrick Flanagan who finished in seventh place with a time of 27:38; a fitting end to the senior's career.
"He's been our number one runner the last two years and for him to finish that way at the conference championship is what you want for him in his last race," Kuebler said.
Both the men's and women's teams moved up one spot from last season's conference finish. The men regained their spot as conference runners-up after finishing in third last season while the women moved from runners-up in 2013 to win their fifth conference title.
"It's nice to have the women win the title again particularly because there are so many seniors," Kuebler said. "As a coach you just have to be happy with both performances. I'm very proud."
