STATE COLLEGE, Penn. ?The University of Kentucky?s men and women cross country runners faired well in the cold, wet and windy conditions at the Penn State National meet finishing 16th and 13th, respectively. The Wildcat women were led on the 6k course by junior Allison Grace and freshman Andre Silva led the men on the 5.2 mile course. Grace finished 15th for the Cats in a time of 21:14 with Silva finishing 37th crossing the finish line at 26:31.

The women competed against over 350 women on 41 teams on the Pennsylvania State University Blue-White Golf Course. Senior Candace Leep finished second for Kentucky in a time of 22:31 for 70th place. Beth Heimann and sophomore Emily King in her first race this season were next across the finish line at six seconds apart with times of 22:41 and 22:47, respectively. Freshman Lavera Morris (23:17), Leah Kerstetter (23:25) and Georganne Way (23:27) completed the seven for the Cats.

The men competed against 38 teams and over 325 runners on the rainy 5.2 mile course. For the men sophomore John Richardson finished second for Kentucky in 26:50. The next five Cats all finished within a minute of each other. Andrew Thompson ran 27:11, freshman Chris Long recorded 27:17 and Jonathan Thomas came in at 27:47. Freshman, Stephan Smith completed the course in 27:57 and Chris Millisor finished the lineup for the Cats at 27:59.

No. 2 ranked Providence won the women?s race with 49 points as the next closest competitor, Duke finished with 60 points. Individual titles went to last year?s first and second-place finishers again this year, Providences? Kim Smith (19:46) took first and Mary Cullen (20:23) took second. For the men, American took the team title with 49 points and University of Pennsylvania came in second with 83. Individual titles for the men went to Penn State?s Dan Mazzocco, American?s Pat McAdie took second and Dusty Lieb from UPenn claimed third.

The Cats next compete at the SEC Championships at Fayetteville, Arkansas on Saturday, October 30.

-UK-