The No. 23 Virginia men’s cross country team finished fourth at the ACC Championships on Friday (Nov. 1) at the Buford Meredith Cross Country Course in Blacksburg, Va., with three Cavaliers earning All-ACC honors. The UVA women’s team finished 11th in the team standings.
The Cavalier men scored 100 points to tie with Virginia Tech in the team standings. The Hokies won the tiebreak, winning three of five head-to-head position finishes between the two teams’ top-five scoring runners.
Syracuse won the men’s title with 68 points, while No. 20 Notre Dame finished second with 73 points.
No. 6 NC State won its fourth consecutive women’s ACC title, scoring 64 points. No. 10 Florida State finished second with 76 points as No. 17 Notre Dame placed third with 116 points.
Sophomore Peter Morris (Hamilton, Va.) earned his first conference accolade, leading the team with a 12th-place finish and a time of 24:45.2. Senior AJ Ernst (Marblehead, Mass.) and redshirt senior Alex Corbett (Burke, Va.) finished 20th and 21st, respectively. Ernst ran a time of 24:53.8, while Corbett captured a time of 24:55.6 as both athletes earned their first All-ACC honor.
Senior Lachlan Cook (Brisbane, Australia) finished 22nd, recording a time of 24:58.4, while redshirt senior Ari Klau (West Harford, Conn.) finished as the Cavaliers’ fifth scoring runner, placing 25th overall with a time of 25:01.9.
“Our men ran a very positive race today,” director of track & field and cross country/associate athletics director of administration Vin Lananna said. “Peter Morris stepped up and did a great job towards the front. Our pack competed well and worked together throughout the entire race. It was exciting seeing Alex Corbett and AJ Ernst join Peter on the podium for All-ACC (honors). We are looking forward to hosting regionals in two weeks. If our men can compete there the way they did today, it will be a very good day.”
The UVA women were led by junior Gabriella Karas (Louisville, Ky.), who finished 30th with a time of 21:39.5. Junior Kiera Bothwell (Springfield, Va.) recorded a time of 21:57.9 to finish 45th, while junior Hannah Moran’s (Salem, Va.) time of 22:12.3 placed her 59th. Redshirt junior Olivia Sargent (Yardley, Pa.) placed 64th with a time of 22:19.1 as sophomore Helena Lindsay (Yokohama, Japan) rounded out the Cavaliers’ top five with a 104th-place finish and a time of 23:05.8.
“Our women continue to be a work in progress,” said Lananna. “It was nice to see Gabby Karas have a strong performance and compete well today. We just need to continue putting in the work and moving forward.”
The ACC Championships signified the men’s and women’s cross country matchup between Virginia and Virginia Tech in the Commonwealth Clash, sponsored by Virginia529, the official college savings plan of University of Virginia Athletics. Virginia Tech captured both points at stake in the all-sports rivalry series between the two schools.
The Cavaliers will return to action on Nov. 15 as the teams host the NCAA Southeast Regional Championships at Panorama Farms.
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