KENERSVILLE, N.C. – The Elon University men’s and women’s cross country programs competed at Wake Forest Invitational on Friday, Oct. 16, its final regular-season meet before the Colonial Athletic Association Championships, at the Ivey M. Redmon Sports Complex.
The Phoenix women garnered a fourth-place finish in the 17-team field with 110 points and finished behind Richmond (53), Appalachian State (70) and host Wake Forest (86) in the 6K race. Senior Elyse Bierut paced the Elon female harriers with a fourth-place finish and a personal-best time of 21:38.91 in a race featuring 173 participants.
Junior Shelby Cuddeback was the next to cross the line for the Elon women at 17th with her time of 22:25.20 while senior Kaitlin Snapp clocked in a time of22:34.17 and a 26th-place standing. Brigid Brennan (32nd, 22:44.19), Corey Weiss (49th, 23:01.18) and Coralea Geraniotis (55th, 23:11.57) rounded out the top-five times for Elon.
In the men’s 8K run, Elon was ninth overall in the 18-team field with 219 points. Rookie Nick Ciolkowski was the maroon and gold’s top runner after finishing 17th out of 174 runners with a time of 25:25.39. Senior Reed Payne was the next to cross the line for Elon with his time of 26:04.80 in 48th followed by fellow senior Ryan Gwaltney and his time of 26:20.38. Ian O’Leary (26:44.51) and Sam Geha (27:21.32) closed out the top-five times for the Phoenix.
After a week off, Elon will compete at the CAA Cross Country Championship meet hosted by the College of Charleston on Saturday, Oct. 31.