Cardinals Cross-Country Places 4th at Wilkes University in PA
Oct 14, 2022 - Fort Forty PA.
On Friday, the Cardinals cross-country team traveled up I-83 to compete at the 1st Annual Blue & Gold Invitational hosted by Wilkes University. Head Coach Mark Pryor was looking for a final test for his distance runners before they enter into the championship phase of the season.
Coach Pryor was looking for his student-athletes to maintain their level of performances which saw every athlete score a personal record (PR) in last weekend's race at Goucher College. While they didn't improve their PRs, the team scored their best finish by placing 4th overall. Freshman Keynaud Randolph once again led the team by placing 7th overall which is his first ever Top 10 finish in collegiate competition. Fellow freshman Ethan Bush came within 1 sec of his PR placing 19th which was also his best ever finish. They have been the team's 1-2 finishers all season and helped the team's scoring with their low placings. The key to cross-country team scoring is to have the lowest score. Ryheim Hall, Zachary Sanders and Joshua Blackston didn't run particularly well and will have the the coming week to hopefully get back on track.
When asked about the team's preparations for the coming championship meets, Coach Pryor was confident his team will be ready to run well. Pryor stated, "our athletes need to prepare better mentally. Right now, some of the athletes are just running at the meets but not racing. They are just surviving and trying to finish instead of trying to place high and compete against other athletes. That's important in the next scoring meet". Pryor says physically, his team is ready to run well but they have to believe it and then execute.
Coach Pryor is hopeful that his two top freshman will have breakout performances at the coming Region Championships which may lead to them competing at the NJCAA XC Championships on Nov 12th in Tallahassee Florida.
Here is the link to the team and individual results from Wilkes University:
The team will have 10 days to prepare for the Region XX Cross Country Championships scheduled for Saturday Oct 29th at Hagerstown Community College.
GO CARDINALS!!!!!!