Competing in their final meet before the ACC Championships, the North Carolina men’s and women’s cross country teams traveled to Madison, Wisc. during Fall Break to take part in the Wisconsin Adidas Invite.
The men — ranked No. 13 in the nation coming into the race — finished 11th overall out of 35 teams, while the women slotted in at 29th of 37 teams.
Competing against a field that coach Mark VanAlstyne called “almost too good,” the UNC men held their own.
“There were 20 teams ranked in the top 30 out there, so I knew we would have our work cut out for us,” VanAlystne said, adding that the 11th place performance aligned with his expectations coming into the meet.
“On the men’s side, [the result] was in the ballpark of where I thought. I feel like we had an average day there.”
At the same time, VanAlystne applauded his women’s team for their efforts as they continue to compete despite battling a ripple of injuries that have plagued the team throughout the season thus far.
Juniors Lizzy Whelan (20:32) and Annie LeHardy (20:35) both recorded personal records in the 6K race, an accomplishment that pleased VanAlystne.
“On the women’s side, we’re still trying to get everyone healthy,” VanAlstyne said. “I feel like we’ll be reasonably competitive at ACC [Championships].”
VanAlstyne said that the team needs to add three more healthy runners to the roster heading into the conference championships.
Along with personal records from Whelan and LeHardy, junior Ryan Walling recorded a personal best 8K time of 23:53 for the men’s squad, finishing 35th overall in the meet.
Aside from Walling, VanAlstyne praised two additional standouts on the men’s side.
“Isaac Preston came into the home stretch and passed about 40 athletes in the last 500 or 600 meters and really moved us up in the team standings,” VanAlsytne said.
The second-year coach added that senior Mike Jacobs — who ran in the event’s B race — posted an impressive 24:41 time en route to a 7th place finish in his first 8K experience at a major meet.
VanAlstyne harped on the fact that the Tar Heels raced against many of the nation’s top cross country programs, noting that the experience would be invaluable moving forward.
“In today’s NCAA cross country climate, there is no better weekend than this past weekend,” he said.
“It’s amazing competition. It’s good to get up and see how you fare against those top teams.”
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