Men’s and Women’s Cross Country to compete for awards at PSUAC Invitational
Fayetteville, PA – The Penn State Scranton Men's and Women's Cross Country teams will hit the road on Saturday, October 26, 2019 to compete in the PSUAC Invitational hosted by Penn State Mont Alto at Norlo Park in Fayetteville, PA. The Invitational will feature a record number of runners from PSUAC campuses including Mont Alto, Brandywine, Fayette, DuBois, Greater Allegheny, Schuylkill and Scranton.
The entire Scranton team, comprised of 8 male and 5 female runners, has consistently improved their times with each race this season. On the women's side, returning PSUAC standout Caitlyn Powell, serves as team captain leading the Lady Lions. Powell, who placed 6th overall on the Norlo Park Championship course last fall, earned PSUAC 1st team All-Conference and looks to repeat the honor. She is joined by newcomer, Lisa Grab, an ultra-marathoner, who has consistently placed in the top 5 out of PSUAC female runners in her last three races. Not far behind is returner Alexis Karayanis, who, amid re-joining late in the season, finished the last course, a difficult Fayette sequence, behind Grab at 32:36. Rounding out the scoring for Scranton Lady Lions is newcomers Alex Coppola and Megan Lucey. Lucey, a freshman, has improved her mile time by almost two minutes since the season kicked off.
Racing for the top men's spot for Scranton is sophomore Stephen Torres. Torres, affectionately known by his teammates as the Stephen "with the hair", dons a ponytail and a long stride and has placed among NCAA DIII runners this season. A former Marywood runner, Torres is a dedicated racer, shaving over two minutes off his time in the regular season, earning campus player of the week for his season best of 32:17 at Fayette on October 12. Dark horse former soccer players Jordan Symonies and Tom Miller, juniors, traded their cleats for racing flats and follow up Torres to score for Scranton. Miller, Scranton's third finisher, improved his time by an overall impressive 3 minutes and 15 seconds this season. Rounding out the scoring for the Nittany Lions is newcomers Fabien Charles-Keith and Stephen Lafata. With a chance to improve before USCAA Nationals in Virginia Beach in November, captain Robert Murphy along with newcomers Jacob Schultz and Christian Williams have the opportunity to help Scranton's men's team earn a top spot in the PSUAC.