Press Release Written by Nathan Foltz.
NEWARK, Del. - - The Wilmington University cross country team had another strong showing on Friday in Newark, as the men won the University of Delaware Invitational at White Clay Creek State Park while the women finished fifth out of seven schools.
Julian Jones again paced the Wildcats, finishing second overall in the men's 8k race en route to a 37-point showing to end the day ahead of Delaware TC, who were in second with 54 points. Sammy and Tiffany Banning were the top finishers for the Wildcats in the women's 5k, finishing 19th and 22nd, respectively, for a team score of 120.
The women's race was first on the day and Sammy Banning led the team with a time of 21:08.9, which was good for 19th place. Tiffany Banning wasn't far behind, finishing 22nd in 21:33.9, and Amy Chomo followed her with a time of 21:56.0 for 27th overall. Maddie Minnick ran a 22:14.7 to finish in 30th, Angie Chomo finished in 40th with a time of 23:31.8, and Claudia Rodriguez-Arreola rounded out the Cats' day with a time of 24:52.1 that was good for 43rd place. The Wildcats finished ahead of the other two NCAA Division II teams as Goldey-Beacom finished sixth with 179 points and the District of Columbia finished seventh with 187 points.
The men, who came into the day ranked No. 5 in the USTFCCCA East Region Poll, ran next, and were led by another exceptional performance by Julian Jones. Jones finished second overall with a time of 26:21.0, which was a full minute faster than the third place finisher. Carter Sparwasser finished fifth in 27:46.9, and Reggie Hernandez kept the top ten finishes coming with a seventh place performance in 28:00.3. Skyler Pearson was the final top ten finisher for Wilmington, completing his race in 28:43.2. Cooper Schmidt was next with a 29:14.9 time in 13th place, followed by Julian Rich (16th; 29:41.5), Kevin Gonzalez (19th; 30:06.3), Braeden Peterson (23rd; 30:49.2), Zach Souders (24th; 30:58.1), and Niko Licup (51st, 36:33.7). Fellow CACC competitor Goldey-Beacom finished fourth overall with 93 points.
The Wildcats will be in action again next weekend when they head to Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, September 27th. The men will run first on the West Branch XC Course at 10:00 a.m., and the women are scheduled to follow at 10:45 a.m.
