UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Penn State women's cross country team took first place (24 points) in an excellent 6K race while the men's team battled well against solid competition and finished third as a team (71 points) in the Spiked Shoe Invitational on Friday morning on the Penn State Golf Courses.
"It was a beautiful morning for cross country here out on the Penn State golf courses," said Head Coach John Gondak. "We had some great competition to start the season. The women's team got off to a really strong start, pulling out the win. I'm happy for them and how they competed. The younger men's squad was much improved from last year and gave a really good challenge to Pitt and Syracuse this morning and we're looking forward to getting back to work and getting ready for Paul Short."
The Nittany Lions entered today's competition with goals in mind and went out and exceeded those expectations. In the women's race, Penn State went out with the lead in the beginning and never relinquished it through the entirety of the race. On the men's side, the matchup with Pitt's group pushed the young Nittany Lions to a solid finish.
WOMEN'S 6K RACE
Faith DeMars' second-straight win highlighted an outstanding race for the Nittany Lion women. The senior crossed the line in 20:50.3, leading her team to the win. The Nittany Lions finished with four of the top five runners in the race, with Florence Caron (20:59.0), Maddie Ullom (21:11.3), and Sophia Toti (21:12.1) finishing in the 3-4-5 positions, respectively. Makenna Krebs rounded out a dominant top-five for Penn State, taking 11th place with a 21:40.3.
Following the Nittany Lions (24 points), Syracuse (40 points) and Pitt (79 points) finished as the second and third-place squads.
Penn State Women's Top Seven Results:
Place (Points) Runner Time
1 (1) Faith DeMars 20:50.3
3 (3) Florence Caron 29:59.0
4 (4) Maddie Ullom 21:11.3
5 (5) Sophia Toti 21:12.1
11 (11) Makenna Krebs 21:40.3
19 Hayley Kitching 22:02.0 PR
24 Katie Dallas 22:05.8 PR
MEN'S 5.2-MILE RACE
Redshirt senior Evan Dorenkamp posted a 25:43.5 to finish seventh overall for the Penn State men. Dorenkamp led a strong group of runners for the Nittany Lions to a third-place finish as a team. Sophomore Ryan Watson, last week's Big Ten Men's Cross Country Athlete of the Week, came in 14th place overall (26:02.7), scoring 12 points for Penn State as the second finisher for the team. Hayden Healey finished 16th overall, scoring 14 points with a 26:07.5. Both Watson and Healey finished towards the top of a Pitt group that the team matched up well with entering the competition.
Syracuse scored 16 points to earn the win while Pitt finished in second place (59 points) just above the Nittany Lions in third (71 points).
Penn State Men's Top Seven Results:
Place (Points) Runner Time
7 (7) Evan Dorenkamp 25:43.5
14 (12) Ryan Watson 26:02.7 PR
16 (14) Hayden Healey 26:07.5
21 (18) Caiden Leen 26:15.5 PR
23 (20) Justin Healey 26:20.9 PR
31 Jonah Powell 26:35.0
37 Behailu Bekele-Arcuri 26:40.2
FROM THE SOURCE
Faith DeMars and Florence Caron
Evan Dorenkamp
Associate Head Coach Ryan Foster
WHAT'S NEXT
Penn State takes a break to the end of the month before traveling to Lehigh for the Paul Short Run on Saturday, September 30.
FOLLOW THE NITTANY LIONS
Follow along with the team on our social media pages on Facebook (PennStateTFXC) and X/Instagram (@pennstatetfxc).
