Men's Results  |  Women's Results

The Malone University men's and women's cross country teams opened their respective 2017 seasons on Thursday as they competed in the University of Akron's Tommy Evans Invitational at Silver Creek Metro Park in Norton, Ohio. The Pioneer women finished 4-1 against a field of five NCAA Division I opponents as they defeated Cleveland State University (23-34), Kent State University (26-30), Robert Morris University (15-49) and Youngstown State University (18-39) but fell to host Akron (25-30).  The Malone men went 2-1 against the Division I competition, defeating Kent State (20-40) and Youngstown State but falling to Akron (17-40)

Both races were delayed by rain and lightning.  The men's and women's teams then competed on the same 5K course with staggered start times.

Because of NCAA regulations that do not allow for Division I and non-Division I teams to be scored in the same meet, the results were determined by head-to-head team scores. In the women's 5K, Akron went 5-0, Malone 4-1, Kent State 3-2, Cleveland State 2-3, Youngstown State 1-4 and Robert Morris 0-5.  In the men's event, Akron finished 3-0, Malone 2-1, Kent State 1-2 and YSU was 0-3.

In the women's race, junior Hannah Thompson took second overall with a time of 18:08.9.  Senior Jade Smith was fourth in 18:12.9 while senior Hannah Campbell placed tenth in 18:34.6.  Sophomore Rachel Wentworth followed in 17th (18:50.2) while freshman Clare Willett took 19th in 18:55.6.  Freshman Jasmine Penrod was 24th in 19:11.1 and senior Laura Tweedie crossed the finish line in 36th place with a mark of 19:26.0.

For the Pioneer men, junior George McCartney placed fourth with a mark of 15:17.1.  Senior Nate Boyer returned to the Malone line-up with a strong ninth-place showing in 15:26.8. Freshman Noah Chaplik took 11th in his first collegiate meet in 15:34.2.  Fellow freshman and high school teammate Zach Fresenko placed 11th in 15:36.3 while junior Brett Cortelletti and sophomore Noah Whittington finished 15th and 16th, respectively, with times of 15:41.2 and 15:42.8.  Freshman Nick Chaplik grabbed 25th with a mark of 16:08.2.

The Pioneers will be back in action next weekend at Kutztown University's Division II / Division III Challenge.