KERNERSVILLE, N.C. -- The High Point University men's cross country team ran to a second-place finish at the VertCross Invitational on Friday evening at the Redmon Sports Complex. The Panthers placed the runners in the top-10 and six in the top-20 for the evening, paced by
Othmane El Gharissi's seventh-place finish in 25:01.9.
Head coach
Mike Esposito: "I thought our intent was good, but again we just couldn't close the deal. But I believe in this group, and they're doing everything we ask. We've got to get everybody healthy and in two weeks we'll run low and give it a go. Our goal is to win the meet, that's why you come to these things, and especially when you host. We'll just sharpen the tool a little bit ahead of conference championships and get them there in one piece. They've done a lot of really good work to this point, so we sharpen up a little bit and try to get everybody healthy and ready to go for that day."
FINAL RESULTS
Following El Gharissi, High Point was led by
Spencer Smucker and
Ian Miller in eighth and ninth place, respectively. Smucker finished with a time of 25:04.3 while Miller crossed with a time of 25:07.8.
Patrick Kelly was the next Panther finisher at 25:41.9 in 16th place while
Jake Tarosky finished 18th with a career-best 25:44.6, nearly 45 seconds faster than his previous best.
Ben Dertinger rounded out the top-20 with a time of 25:51.8 and
Lorenzo Botter finished right behind in 21st with a time of 25:54.6.
Kyler Koning just missed the top-25 as he finished 26th in 26:27.7.Â
Other High Point finishers included
Klaus Mangeot in 38th (27:04.8), Jake Fiorillo in 39th (27:05.4), Evan Mills in 47th (27:30.7),
Aiden Morrison in 54th (27:59.4), Aiden Soto in 59th (28:12.4),
Evan Parkerson in 69th (29:05.8),
Jack LaSalla in 72nd (29:40.4), and
Aidan Finn in 84th place (33:17.4).Â
#GoHPU
