Both the men’s and women’s Shippensburg cross-country teams finished in the Top 5 of competition Saturday as they competed in the Division II/III Challenge hosted by Kutztown University.

SU put forth a strong second-place performance in the men’s race as the Raiders scored 48 points. Stonehill College won the meet with 29 points, while third-place Malone University had 53 points to round out the top three schools.

In the team’s first 8K of the season, junior Sean Weidner lead the Raider charge as he finished fifth overall in 26:42, 14 seconds behind top-place finisher Riley Dowd of Stonehill.

Breaking the Top 10 for SU were senior Alex Balla and sophomore Rob Moser who came in eighth and ninth with times of 26:54 and 26:59, respectively. 

The Raiders had three others place in the Top 25. Junior Dominic Stroh finished 11th with a time of 27:08. Senior Calvin Conrad-Kline earned the final points for SU as he came in 15th with a time of 27:11. Sophomore Connor Holm put in a strong effort as well by finishing 25th with a time of 27:29.

Stonehill also took home the team title on the women’s side by completing the 6K race with 51 points and narrowly beating Malone with 64 points.

Looking to continue building success from their solid showing at the Galen Piper Alumni Open earlier this month, SU’s Top 7 runners all finished within 28 seconds of each other Saturday at Kutztown as the Raiders finished fourth with 141 points.

Senior Lizzie Manickas led the Raider pack by finishing 21st in 24:15. Freshman Isabella Marchini was right behind Manickas, crossing the line in 24:18, as junior Jackie Kinkead was merely six-tenths of a second behind.

Sophomores Lydia Cagle and Maria Antoni rounded out SU’s seven runners by finishing with times of 24:38 and 24:43, respectively.

Both the men and women will now have the next two weeks to train before traveling to Lehigh University for an important mid-season meet at the Paul Short Invitational on Friday, Sept. 29.

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