NEWVILLE, Pa.–The top runners from Franciscan's men's and women's cross country teams completed their season with a stellar performance at the Mideast regional meet, the men's team finishing twenty-fourth out of 47 and the women's team coming in in thirty-ninth out of 51.
The AMCC Conference champion Lady Barons completed their season with many injured players returning to the team for the last race of the year. Both senior Sydney Novak, Franciscan's number one runner, and senior Allison Huelseman, another top-rated runner, came back from injury to perform.
Novak finished fastest among the Lady Barons, placing 205th out of 370 female runners with a time of 25:57.5 while Huelseman finished 247th with a time of 26:44.7.
Senior Elise Zajicek also ran extremely well in the last race of her college career, finishing third for the Lady Barons and 223 overall with a time of 26:19.6.
"She was our number three runner today, and she ran probably the best race of her career," head coach Dan Kuebler said.
He added that most of the women earned best times in their races, including junior Kate Porter who came in second fastest for the team and 215 overall, with a split of 26:14.2.
On the men's side, their 24th place position was a culmination of months of hard work and their usual tight pack.
"The guys made a big improvement over last year and finished twenty-fourth," Kuebler said. "That was a goal for the guys and they ran well."
Senior Patrick Flanagan had the top time for Franciscan in his final college race, finishing 128 of 343 with a time of 27:30.2.
He was followed by junior John Redmond,in one hundred thirty-third place with 27:32.9,and the freshmen duo of Graham Martin and Time Jackson, who finished 148 and 156 with times of 27:50.9 and 27:58.5 respectively. The two underclassmen, along with sophomore Emmet Delaney all achieved personal bests. Delaney came in 197 with 28:36.3.
"We've got a lot of runners for the guys coming back next year," Kuebler said, "so I'm looking forward to the guys improving again next year."
