Both Red Devils cross country teams finished well above their rankings at the Purple Valley Classic at Williams College on Saturday, September 23 as the No. 24-ranked men’s team finished eighth and the No. 15-ranked women’s team claimed fifth overall.

Bryce Descavish ’20 finished 16th overall in the men’s 8000 meters with a time of 26:53.0.  Eric Herrmann ’19 and Nathan Udell ’18 both finished just behind Descavish, placing 22nd and 30th with respective times of 27:03.2 and 27:08.6.  Patrick Moore ’20 also ran the 8000 meters in a time of 32:45.7.  After the meet, Moore spoke about keeping the big picture in mind, saying that, “We’re prepared for every race that we have, considering that we only have six races in cross country.  So every race is very important.”

This had been the Red Devil men’s first meet running the 8000 meters.  “We’re about halfway through the season right now,” Moore explained, “so we’ve already had a lot of very good workouts… [that] prepared us for this distance.”

Sofia Canning ’18 took eighth in the women’s first 6000 meters race of the season, finishing in 22:44.0.  Sarah House ’20 crossed the finish line in 23:00.3, claiming the 15th spot.  She was followed by Tessa Cassidy ’20 and Evelyn Lantz ’21 who posted times of 23:45.0 and 24:09.0, respectively.  In the 5000 meters, Teressa Healy ’20  led the Red Devil women with a seventh place finish in 20:51.0.  Healy was accompanied by Kylie Shalala ’21, who took 12th in 21:22.1 and Julia Snyder ’20 in 21st with a time of 21:57.7.

Next week the Red Devils will take a short trip to Newville, PA for the Dickinson Long-Short Invitational on Saturday, September 30.