Men’s Cross Country Takes Second at IUP

Sept. 15 – (INDIANA, Pa.) – The Carnegie Mellon men’s cross country team raced to a second place finish at the IUP Invitational hosted by Indiana University of Pennsylvania on Saturday, September 15. The Tartans finished with 44 points, losing to Division II Slippery Rock’s 15 points. The eight kilometer course consisted of many turns amidst rolling hills. Temperatures in the mid-50s prevailed at the 11 a.m. race time with a noticeable wind during the race consisting of seven teams.

The team started conservatively, racing in a large pack for the first mile. Freshman J.P. Allera (Columbia, Md./Wilde Lake), junior Breck Fresen (Buffalo Grove, Ill./Stevenson), and senior Mark Tressler (Pittsburgh, Pa./South Park) pushed ahead in the later miles, racing among the race leaders. Fresen made a push and took the lead around the third mile mark before placing sixth overall and first on the team with a time of 27:29. Allera was seventh overall in 27:30 and Tressler finished ninth (27:35). Graduate student Geoff Misek (Goodrich, Mich.) was tenth in 27:43 and junior Ryan Anderson (Orchard Park, N.Y.) was fifth on the team and 12th in the race with a time of 27:47.

Sophomore Dario Donatelli (Pittsburgh, Pa./Central Catholic) finished 15th overall in 28:01 and junior Mike Condon (Bend, Ore./Mountain View) placed 16th, crossing the line a second behind Donatellit. Sophomore Chris Rizzo (Attleboro, Mass./Bishop Feehan) was 18th in 28:11 and senior Dan Carmody (San Diego, Calif./Thomas Jefferson) crossed the line in 28:17, good for 20th place.

Freshman Justin Kurp (Murrysville, Pa./Franklin Regional) was 22nd (28:19), freshman Dan Addis (Malvern, Pa./Great Valley) was 29th (28:40), and senior Doug Fricker (West Lafayette, IN) was 30th (28:41). A pair of freshmen rounded out the top 14 for the Tartans as Josh Eickmeier (O’Fallon, Ill./O’Fallon Township) finished 31st (28:43), and Erik Kallenbach (Powell, Ohio/Olentangy) placed 32nd (28:44).

The team will split up in the next two weeks, with some runners racing at the St. Vincent Invitational in Latrobe, Pa., this upcoming Saturday (Sept. 22), and the team’s top runners traveling to compete at the Paul Short Invitational at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa., on Friday, September 28.