The PSAC Championships were held Oct. 22 in Lock Haven Pa. The Rams took on the course with enthusiasm, and it seemed to pay off. The men finished 11th overall out of 15 teams, missing 10th place by just one point. Despite graduating three extraordinary runners last season, the men still finished one place higher than their last trip to the championships. Freshman Zach Musselman finished 55th overall, the best finish for WCU since 2008. Curran Kneebone finished 58th, Jake Perry 74th, Sean Sebeck 75th, Chriss Bucci 88th, Cody Borders 100th, Jack Barnett 112th and Adam Farence 130th.
“For the men to move up a place in the team standings despite graduating three of our top five is superb,” said head coach Andrew Huber. The team has no seniors to graduate, so the future looks bright for these young Rams. Huber could not agree more, “I am really looking forward to what these guys can do in the future.”
A proud finish for the women runners gave them 9th overall out of 16 teams. This was the best finish for WCU since 2002.
Kristina Koutsouros finished 10th and good enough for the highest individual Ram runner since 2000. Due to injury, this was her first race since early September.
Kristina Koutsouros and Cathleen Kasey finished first and second and both ran the course in under 22 minutes. This was only the second and third time in school history that WCU runners finished a 6K race in that time block. Kathleen McManus finished 71st, Brittany Boyer 81st, Julie Clappsy 89th, Nichole Del Grasso 111th, Trish Evans 115th, Rachel Wynn 120th and Breezy Sweeney 136th. There were a total of 152 runners.
Coach Huber could not be more proud of his women squad. “We raced six freshmen out of our 10 runners, so I was very nervous about the outcome, but they stepped up and performed like I asked them to and really helped us to our highest finish in 10 years.”
The NCAA East Regional’s will be held on Nov. 5 at Slippery Rock University. The time is TBA and more information can be found at the West Chester Athletic website.
Alex Einhorn is a second-year student majoring in writing with a minor in journalism. He can be reached at AE744379@wcupa.edu.