On a beautiful Saturday night on the campus of Shippensburg University, the men’s and women’s cross-country teams were set to battle in their only home meet of the season. This meet had a twist, however.

Every year at the Galen Piper Open and Alumni Challenge, former alumni of Shippensburg University get the opportunity to compete against members of the current team. This season, the men’s alumni squad pulled out a spectacular victory.

For the women, alumna Mary Dell took the win. Dell covered the course with a time of 14:24, which is the second fastest time recorded on the modern layout of the SU course. The win marked Dell’s third straight first-place finish at the meet, and her fourth victory in the last five years at the Galen Piper Open and Alumni Challenge.

For the men, current assistant cross-country coach and SU alum Matt Gillette came away with the first-place finish. Gillette covered the course with a time of 19:08. Gillette’s time was the sixth fastest in modern course history. Along with Gillette, alumni Sean Stetler took fourth while Wade Miller and Chris Mullin finished sixth and seventh, respectively. The men’s alumni squad took the win and hoisted the ceramic owl—the trophy given out every year at the Galen Piper Open. The men’s alumni squad won the meet with an unbelievable 22 points. The alumni team put all of its scorers inside the Top 10 during the meet.

Overall, the Raiders women’s team came away with the owl, finishing in first-place with 42 points.

“We had a plan we wanted to execute with the women, running conservatively the first couple laps and then closing the last two laps,” coach Steve Spence said. “It looked like we got out a little harder than what I wanted in the beginning, but they were still able to run fairly consistent on each lap, and the goal was to win and bring the Owl back to Shippensburg and we were successful in doing that.”

Senior Casey Norton, who finished second to Dell, led the way for the SU squad, finishing with a time of 14:34—her fastest time to date on the SU course. Bryanna Dissinger also registered a fantastic finish. Dissinger finished as the second for SU, registering a sixth-place finish with a time of 15:04. Right behind Dissinger were SU runners Caity Reese and Lindsey Gerlach.

On the men’s side, Calvin Conrad-Kline finished in 10th-place, and was the first member of the Raiders squad to finish. Conrad-Kline crossed the line with a time of 19:46. Right behind Conrad-Kline were teammates Braden Bruning, John Conner, Rob Moser, Alex Balla and Alex Brand. The men’s team scored 50 points, which was good enough for a second-place finish at the meet.

“The men really seemed to follow instructions well,” Spence said. “They were very conservative the first four laps and then closed the last two. They closed up nicely but our alumni squad is tough and we had the keystone track club here and they had two or three guys finish in the Top 10. It was challenging just for anyone to land in the Top 10. Calvin Conrad-Kline was 10th and he was our first runner from Ship.”

Spence was very proud of his team’s performance, but knows there is still a long way to go in order to reach the goal of competing in the NCAA Division II Championship.

“With our sport I get very concerned if we look good early in the season. We did okay but we definitely aren’t in top fitness. I am happy with where we are, but it’s really where we end up that’s important at the end of the season.”

The Raiders will be back in action on Sept. 17 at Kutztown University in the Division II-Division III challenge.

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