TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – Against some of the nation’s best, Vanderbilt women’s cross country finished 15th and the men finished fifth at Pre-Nationals on Saturday afternoon.
At the national championship course at Indiana State, the Commodores were led by freshman Grace Jensen on the women’s side and sophomore Nick Laning in the men’s race.
“Those were very good competitive efforts by the men and women today,” said head coach Steve Keith. “Both groups are responding well and should take some confidence from this weekend into the SEC meet in two weeks.”
In a women’s race that featured 10 nationally-ranked teams, Jensen was the first Commodore to cross the finish in 71st place, completing the 6k course in 21:09. Ana Wallace was not far behind with an 82nd-place showing in 21:18.
Junior Caroline Pietrzyk (97th, 21:27) was the third Commodore across the finish, while Reagan Bustamante (113th, 21:35) and Niki Narayani (136th, 21:47) also scored for the Dores. Haley Walker was 150th (21:54) and Gillian Mortimer finished in 22:33.
On the men’s side, Laning crossed fifth in a time of 25:01. Harrison Thomas and Matthew Estopinal were stride-for-stride at the finish to place 17th and 18th, respectively at 25:26, while Caleb Van Geffen finished 49th (26:01) and Jonah Bird capped the scoring for the Commodores with a 97th-place finish (27:07). Lucas Mowery was 99th in 27:10 and Andrew Irvine finished 121st at 28:26.
In the women’s open race, Anna Grace Morgan was 23rd (22:26), Alena Sapienza-Wright was 37th (22:48), Mailin Struck was 40th (22:49) and Kendall Derry was 44th (23:04).
Next up for the Commodores are the SEC Championships in Lexington, Kentucky, on Nov. 1.
