STEUBENVILLE, Ohio – The Lady Baron runners took first place at the Franciscan Invitational, the first home meet in program history, while the Franciscan men took second place, fighting through heat, humidity, and a constantly hilly FUS course.
"It was a huge success. The course went well and it went off smoothly," head coach Dan Kuebler said about hosting a meet for the first time. "For me for the kids. They run so often and no one sees them. For them to be able to run in front of their friends I know means a lot to them."
The meet also featured most of the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference teams running on the same course that will be used for the conference championship meet on November first.
Cheered on by their first home crowd, the Lady Baron's performance was particularly encouraging with first-year runner Sydney Novak winning the race with a time of 26:09 and the Franciscan team winning with 30 points and four of the top ten runners.
"I knew the women had a lot more in them after finishing fourth last week and they ran a lot stronger today which bodes really well for the conference meet," Kuebler said. "It's also great for them to win the first Franciscan Invite."
Novak had a sizeable lead through most of the race and clearly established herself as Franciscan's most talented runner in just her second NCAA meet. Kuebler said that while the course was difficult for all the runners, including Novak, that he is excited to see her challenged by better runners at the upcoming Catholic Championships at Notre Dame.
"She's just very talented and she's still trying to reach her potential," Kuebler said. "She was challenged by the course for sure but it'll be interesting to see what she does at Notre Dame where she has some top talent to compete against."
The men also put in a strong performance behind senior captain Patrick Flanagan who led a tightly grouped pack of five Franciscan runners. Flanagan finished in sixth with a time of 29:27 while Emmett Delaney, John Redmond, and Tim Jackson all finished with five seconds of each other, taking eighth, ninth, and tenth place respectively.
"Having that group is really huge. They know that if all five of them pass a guy, that's five more points for the team," Kuebler said. "When its just you that's only one point but when its five it really motivates you and that could be the difference between winning and losing."
The strength of that pack as well as good runs from a number of other Baron runners was enough to put FUS in second place with 47 points, just behind defending AMCC Champions Penn St. Behrend.
"Penn St. Behrend is a very strong team but we have a nice solid pack and when you do that, if you can move that pack up a couple places it makes things a lot different," Kuebler said. "They look good compared to where they were last year."
The Barons and Lady Barons will again leave the FUS campus for their next meet at the Bethany College Invite on September 13 at 10:30 am. A few days later Franciscan's top runners will compete in the National Catholic Championships on September 19 at 2:30 pm.
