BY WILL POLADIAN, SPORTS ASSIGNMENT EDITOR
The St. Bonaventure men’s and women’s cross country teams headed down to Louisville last Saturday for the 20th annual Louisville Classic.
Leading the men’s side was freshman Clay Peets. His time of 26:30.9 was the best on the team. Junior Darion Gregory finished right behind Peets with a time of 26:36.1 which set a new personal record for himself. Rounding out the top three was freshman Zack Buckner with a time of 26:47.1. The men also had two other personal records broken. Sophomore Zane Courtwright and freshman Colin McCarthy finished with times of 26:53.5 and 27:34.6 respectively. These would be good enough to finish fifth and sixth respectively for the team. The men would end up finishing dead last in their side of the meet.
On the women’s side, senior Theresa Dristle led the charge finishing first for her squad with a time of 19:44.0. Second behind her was senior Lindsay Lytle with a time 20:09.5. Finishing off the top three was freshman Olivia Ippolito with a new personal record of 20:39.9. One other personal record was broken. Sophia Machowski had her best run with a time of 20:49.8 to finish fifth for her team. This was good enough for a 28th place finish out of 32 teams.
Freshman Olivia Ippolito was happy with her performance.
“Overall, I am happy with my performance in Kentucky this past weekend,” said Ippolito. “It was a huge meet with just over 400 girls in my race. I ran a 20:39 5k which is a second faster than I had ran at the previous race in Rochester.”
Ippolito felt that the team has made major steps in the right direction.
“I think that the overall performance of the team was a big improvement from last meet,” said Ippolito. “We have been working really hard in practice and always try to have positive mindsets before racing.”
Ippolito is hopeful about the improvement in herself and the team around her.
“In order to improve I think we just need to keep pushing ourselves in practice every day and focus on achieving the goals we set for ourselves in the beginning of the season,” said Ippolito. “Our next meet is at Canisius on the 16th, and I hope to beat my time from Kentucky and hopefully get a personal best.”
Ippolito loves being with the girls around her.
“Running with my teammates is great because of how motivating they all are,” said Ippolito. “Everyone works really hard and it’s a lot of fun being on the team.”
poladiwj20@bonaventure.edu
