Elon Cross Country Faces Tough Competition at adidas XC Challenge

CARY, N.C. – In the second overall meet of the season for both squads, the Elon University men’s and women’s cross country programs competed at the adidas XC Challenge on Friday evening, Sept. 15, at the cross country course at WakeMed Soccer Park. The Phoenix women placed seventh in the 5K race while the men finished 10th overall.
Women’s Results | Men’s Results

Brigid Brennan was the top finisher for the maroon and gold women in the women’s “White” 5K race. The senior nearly tied her personal-best in the race and clocked a 17:54.7 to finish 19th. Fellow senior Corey Weiss was the next female runner to cross the line for Elon, coming in at her time of 18:22.8 at 35th overall. Chelsea Smith was third for the Phoenix at 18:33.7 in 38th followed by Melissa Anastasakis at 18:42.7 in 43rd.

“Brigid followed up her strong season opener with another really good performance,” said Elon head cross country coach Kevin Jermyn. “She is developing into one of the top cross country runners in the (Colonial Athletic Association).”

On the men’s side, Richie Kasper led the way for the maroon and gold with his time of 20:06.0 in the men’s “White” 6K run. The wave of Phoenix behind Kasper consisted of redshirt sophomore Colton Lawson (20:11.1), junior Cooper Jansson (20:36.3), senior Justin Leopold (20:47.2) and juniors Josh Kruppa (21:05.9) and Greg Paugh (21:08.6).

“Richie has been looking really strong in training,” said Jermyn. “He competed well today, improving nicely from his season opener at the Elon Opener.”

Host NC State won the women’s race with 20 total points over league foe Duke, who had 60 points. Davidson had 79 points for third while Richmond (94), Wake Forest (139) and East Carolina (170) all finished ahead of the Phoenix’s 175 points.

In the men’s race, Michigan took medalist honors with 22 points over the Wolfpack, who were second with 36 points. Wake Forest and ECU both had 126 points while Davidson rounded out the top-five with 146. Elon finished with 283 points.

“I’m excited to see the team train really well in the upcoming two weeks and show nice improvements as we move up in 6K for the women and the 8K for the men,” added Jermyn.

The Phoenix is back in action to race at the Paul Short Run at Lehigh University to close out the month on Sept. 28.