The men and women’s cross country team competed in Pittsburg, Pa. at the Carnegie Mellon Invitational on Saturday (Oct. 8).

After graduating a large number of their key runners, the men’s team has had a slower start to their season than usual although they were able to prove themselves this weekend placing second at the meet.

“This year has been a lot more seamless than I thought it would be and we have had a lot of guys step-up,” said junior Aubrey Jordan. “All these guys want to accomplish a lot for us because they know traditionally we do so well come post season and regionally and nationally. We have the fuel that we made it last year, this year we want to do it too.” 

The team understands that to get where they need to be, they must continue to focus on their work ethic and competing with and pushing one another in practice.

“The goals never change, the people do,” said senior David Knack. “We are really good at replacing the people when they graduate, butwe keep the same goals.”

The men are currently ranked eighth in the Midwest Region and placing second out of the 20 teams at the meet will help them build confidence going into the conclusion of their season.

The team is progressing as the season continues, adding more miles to their workout each week. 

“When we are on our A game, we are hard to beat,” said Knack. “When we aren’t performing at our best we are just like everyone else.”

The men finished with 59 team points behind first place, host, Carnegie Mellon who finished with 30 points. 

Carnegie Mellon is currenty ranked 13th in the nation for Division III.

“It was a tough course,” said Jordan. “But we had everyone show up and perform better than they have been the entire season so we are really coming into form right around GLIACs.” 

Knack had a strong day and only fell five seconds short of attaining himself an individual title. Knack placed second after cross the finish live in 26:05.04.

Jordan finished in the top five as well, placing fifth, crossing the finish line in 26:12.9.

“It’s surprising that we end up finishing so close together,” said Jordan. “It’s like training catered to the individual, we each put our own tweaks into it and then come race time we put it all together and we click as a team, chemistry-wise, and we work really well together.”

The women’s pack, ranked No. 24 in Division II and No. 7 in the Midwest Region place third overall in the meet.  

They finished the day with a total of 95 points falling to first place Pittsburg and second place Seton Hill.

The women had two top 20 finishers, senior Anna Mion placed 13th and classmate Jill Bajaksouzian finished in the 16th spot.

“For the next couple weeks going into GLIAC’s and Regionals we will begin to taper and take off on some mileage a little bit, but our work outs will become a little bit harder and a little faster,” said Jordan. “We are going to get our wheels turning and prepare to make Ashland proud.”

The Invitational marks the Eagle’s final preparation for the GLIAC Championships that will begin on Oct. 24 at Wayne State University.