By George Fladeland
The men’s and women’s PSAC cross-country championships were held this Saturday at Mansfield University and KU finished in the top ten. The men finished in eighth place for the second straight year while the women finished in seventh place. Freshmen Steve Maine paced the men’s team with his All-PSAC performance in the 8k race. Once again the duo of Corinne Manela and Frances McNally for the Golden Bears led the women’s team.
The Golden Bear men finished in eighth place with out of 15 teams in the conference and the women finished in seventh place with 205 points. The PSAC cross-country championship was awarded to Lock Haven for the second year in a row with a winning score of 38 points. Shippensburg finished in second place with 58 points and Edinboro took third place with 86 points.
Aaron Dinzeo from California finished in second place at the men’s PSAC cross-country championship a year ago, but he rose to occasion on Saturday by claiming gold with the time of 24:18.7. Dinzeo also broke the previous course record with his championship winning time. Shippensburg’s Brayden Burleigh finished in second place at 24:42.9 and Edinboro’s Matt Link took the bronze with the time of 24:43.8.
Bloomsburg’s Lauren Lehman claimed gold in the women’s race with a time of 21:17.3, and she broke the previous course record. East Stroudsburg’s Allison Decker finished second in 21:24.6 and Kasey Jones of Edinboro took the bronze in 21:31.3.
The top 30 finishers received All-PSAC honors and KU’s Steve Maine landed on the second team by finishing 19th in 25:22.1. Chris Coates was the second Golden Bear to cross the finish line and the 52nd runner overall with a time of 26:51.2. Then Mark Pfaeffle finshed 60th overall and ran a career best time of 26:59.3. The final point scorers for KU were Michael Diecidue and Justin Gum. Diecidue finished 73rd at 27:17:7, and Gum finished 79th with a time of 27:18.5.
Manela and McNally each earned spots on the All-PSAC second team by finishing 18th and 24th overall with times of 22:24.7 and 22:48.0. It was the first time both women to receive All-PSAC honors and it was the highest finish for the duo in their respective careers at the PSAC championship. Other point scorers for the women’s team included: Molly MacDonald who finished at 23:22.6 in 49th place. Olivia Dettore ran in (23:27.3) and Kimberly Katzgrau finished with a time of 23:54.8. Dettore and Katzgrau finished in 53rd and 65th place respectively.
The KUcross-country teams will take a two-week break before heading to Slippery Rock University for the NCAA Atlantic Regional Championship race on Nov. 22
