Men’s Cross Country Third, Women 10th In NCAA Pre-National Races

Courtesy: NC State John Crews (r.) paced NC State to a third-place finish in the men's white race at the NCAA Pre-Nationals.

Paced by top-30 performances from Jon Crews and Wesley Smith, NC State took third place in the men’s white race at the NCAA Pre-Nationals, held Saturday at Terre Haute, Ind.

Crews finished 16th in the 8k white race with a time of 23:41, with Smith 29th at 23:50. Stephen Furst was 33rd at 23:57, followed by John Martinez in 41st place at 24:01, and Tibor Vegh 63rd at 24:14.

The 10th-ranked Wolfpack finished with a score of 182. UTEP, ranked 20th in the latest USTFCCCA national poll, won the white race with a score of 129. Each of UTEP’s five scoring racers finished in the top 40 of the race. Third-ranked Colorado was second with a score of 155.

The two most impressive team performances of the day on the men’s side came in the blue race, which was the first race of the day. Northern Arizona, ranked No. 15, finished first in the blue race with a score of 124. Northern Arizona placed two runners in the top 10, with scores that beat and tied the top runner from UTEP, and three in the top 22. Right behind Northern Arizona was fourth-ranked Iona, which had a team score of 136. Iona had four runners in the top 20 of the blue race.

NC State’s women got outstanding performances from Brittany Tinsley and Angelina Blackmon in the 6k women’s blue race, and Bona Jones ran a strong race. Tinsley finished 10th at 20:38 and Blackmon 13th at 20:43. Jones was 44th at 21:09.

Unfortunately, the Pack women had a significant gap between Jones and No. 4 runner Colleen Wetherbee, a true freshman who was 87th at 21:34. Marika Walker, another true freshman, was the Wolfpack’s fifth runner, 135th at 22:06. NC State finished 10th in the blue race with a score of 289.

No. 1 Stanford won the women’s blue race with 102, followed by 11th-ranked Florida State, which had a 123 team score and had the individual race champion in Susan Kuijken, who finished the 6k course in 19:56. Ninth-ranked Michigan State was third at 178, fourth-ranked Minnesota fourth at 192, and 22nd-ranked Georgetown was fifth at 210.