La Roche Cross Country competes at Pitt-Greensburg Invitational.

The La Roche Women's team, led by Tara Renninger (sr), placed 6th out of 8 teams at the University of Pittsburgh-Greensburg Bobcat Cross Country Invitational, held at the Westmoreland County Fairgrounds on Saturday October 6th. The men's team, led by Dylan Grazier (so.), came in 8th overall. The La Roche women scored 180 points to finish in 6th place, front of Mt. Aloysius College (7th place, 196 points) and Point Park University (8th place, 208 points). The race was won by Seton Hill College with 29 points, with Waynesburg in second place (31 points), Franciscan third place (80 points), Penn State-Altoona fourth place (91 points), and Pitt-Greensburg fifth place (150 points). The Lady Redhawk runners were paced for the fourth consecutive week by standout Tara Renninger, who ran strongly to finish in 33rd place out of 74 runners with a time of 30:38. This was a tough, demanding 6,000 meter (3.7 mile) course with plenty of long hill sections. Beatrice Hand (34:56) and Amy Leavengood (35:09) ran impressively to score competitive team points in the 55th and 56th positions, respectively. In one of the most exciting finishes of the day, Hillary Sandzimier showed explosive speed, putting on a tremendous final sprint in the closing 50 meters to out-run Kim Boylan of Franciscan by exactly one second, thereby securing 59th place (35:45) for the Redhawks. The always-important fifth team runner for LaRoche, Udo Nwosu, finished in 70th position (37:54) and thereby helped the Lady Redhawks to obtain 6th place in the overall team standings. The five-mile (8,000 meter) men's course, which was mostly uphill, proved especially daunting on this hot, sun-baked afternoon. The muscular Dylan Grazier led the way for LaRoche, powering over broad swaths of grassland to finish 63rd in a solid time of 38:46. Andy Tressler, in 67th position, and David Culp, in 68th place, ran hard and finished virtually together in a time of 42:24 for the second and third team spots for La Roche. SaQuane Milton increased his pace over the final two miles to obtain the fourth team position in a time of 51:38, obtaining 69th place overall. Amir Richardson, in 71st place with a time of 55:47, ran steadily to secure LaRoche's all-important fifth team spot. The LaRoche men's team finished in 8th position overall with 250 points, in back of 7th-place Franciscan (150 points), 6th-place Point Park (136 points), 5th place Waynesburg (124 points), 4th place Penn State-Altoona (107 points), 3rd place Thiel (77 points), 2nd place Pitt-Greensburg (74 points), and overall winner Seton Hill (20 points).