LOUISVILLE, KY. – Junior Luis Vargas collected a sixth-place finish out of 269 runners as he and a few members of the Elon cross country team competed at the prestigious Greater Louisville Classic on Saturday morning, Oct. 5. Senior Allyson Oram was the top female runner for the Phoenix, finishing 24th overall out of 288 competitors on the course at E.P. ‘Tom’ Sawyer State Park.
“I was really happy with the way some of our athletes competed today,” said Elon head cross country coach Christine Engel. “Luis ran a great race on the men’s side and really battled up front. Allyson and Elyse Bierut were running great together and competing well. Unfortunately, Elyse went down with a couple hundred yards to go in the race. She’s fine now, thankfully, but obviously it reflected our final score for the women not having her finish the race.”
Vargas ran a time of 24:38.44 at the meet while Ben Perron set a new personal-record in the 8K race with a time of 25:29.14 and a overall finish of 44th.
Oram finished the women’s 5K run with a time of 17:51.77, followed by Kaitlin Snapp with a mark of 18:17.38 and 57th overall. Tereza Novotna was the third finisher for the women after crossing the line at 18:28.80. Junior Haylee Dawe ran a time of 18:35.76 in her first meet of the season and was followed by freshman Shelby Cuddeback (19:10.09) and junior Jenny Gallagher (19:16.15).
“Haylee ran really well in her first race of the season and definitely some good performances all around for the team,” added Engel.
Both programs will be back in action during the weekend of Oct. 18-19, as members of the team will travel to the Blue Ridge Open in Boone, N.C., on Friday, Oct 18. The following day, select members of the Phoenix women returns to the NCAA Pre-Nationals for the second straight year in Terra Haute, Ind.