On Saturday, the N.C. State men’s and women’s cross country teams participated in the Wisconsin Adidas Invitational in Madison, Wisc., the third event of the season for both clubs.
Both squads had similar results, finishing 23rd out of 35 teams and 20th out of 37 teams, respectively. The men finished their 8K event with an average time of 24:19, while the women recorded an average time of 21:08 in their 6K event.
No. 3 Northern Arizona’s men’s team and No. 3 Arizona’s women’s squad won the invitational.
The temperature in Wisconsin on Saturday at the start of the race was 38 degrees, which was a stark difference from the moderate climate of Raleigh. Despite the change in temperature, redshirt senior Andrew Colley said that the cold northern air wasn’t a huge factor for State’s teams.
“It’s definitely not what we’re used to, but I don’t think [the temperature] ever crossed any of our minds,” Colley said. “The coaches made sure we wore extra clothes, and we tried to not let it affect us.”
Colley finished with the best time for State’s men’s team, with a final time of 23:16. The time was third best in the race, finishing only behind senior Kemoy Campbell of Arkansas and senior Maksim Korolev of Harvard.
“I knew that this race was going to have the best competition until the national [championship] meet,” Colley said. “I wanted to have that mindset that I belong up there with the best guys and that I can beat them.”
Colley has finished in the top five in every event that he has participated in this season, including a fourth place finish in the Griak Invitational in Minnesota on Sept. 28.
The men’s cross country team has shown promise this season, but it still isn’t quite ready to compete on a national level. However, Colley said that the Pack’s result in Wisconsin shows the team’s improvement.
“[Saturday’s meet] was a good step in the right direction,” Colley said. “Our team is improving over the season. We’re getting better every time, but we’re still not where we need to be.”
Colley said the team’s best feature was the growing brotherhood between runners.
“We’re around each other all the time, so [the team] is like a family at this point,” Colley said. “If we do something wrong, then we’ll call them out on it. Not only that, but we’ll support each other when we do well. It’s been really key to helping us get better this season.”
For the women’s team, junior Joanna Thompson recorded the best time for the Pack, with a final time of 20:08. Thompson placed 17th in the tournament, marking her third straight top-20 finish this season.
After top-10 finishes in the last two competitions, the women’s team had high expectations coming into Saturday’s meet.
“I think we didn’t perform as well as we were hoping to, but we still managed to have a pretty solid overall performance,” Thompson said. “We beat a couple of good teams, so overall it was pretty good.”
Another name to watch on the women’s side was redshirt senior Emily Pritt. Working her way back from an injury, Pritt sat out the first event and finished sixth on the team in the second event. On Saturday, Pritt bounced back nicely with a 21:23 time, good enough for fourth-best on the team.
“She had a really solid race,” Thompson said. “For her second race back, I think she did a fantastic job.”
Both the men’s and women’s teams will head to Winston-Salem Nov. 1 for the ACC Country Championships.
