Catamounts finish eighth and 11th in meet

The Western Carolina cross country teams competed in the Blue Ridge Open at the newly-christened Don Kennedy Trails on the campus of Appalachian State University in Boone. The women seeded eighth out of 10 teams, while the men came in 11th out of 14 teams. The women’s team finished 14 points ahead of the ninth place team, Southern Conference foe, UNC-Greensboro. The host Appalachian State team won the open with 30 points, 38 points less than second-place Vanderbilt University. Junior Kerrie Savery was the first Catamount woman to finish the race; she finished 27th with a time of 19:37. Sophomore Skye Aiello finished three spots later (30th) at 19:41. No other Catamount runner finished in the top 75 runners; the next Catamount runner to finish was Brittany Beeker, who finished 84th, coming in at 21:43. Annie Bailey finished second seconds later (21:50) for an 88th place finish. Brooke Saddler (101st) and Jenna Hester (102nd) would round out the finishers at 22:43 and 22:49 respectively. The men’s team returned to Cullowhee with an 11th place finish with 245 points, finishing just a point ahead of 12th place Lenoir-Rhyne College. Senior Dan Fassinger was the first Catamount to finish, coming in 19th with a time of 25:50. Only one other Catamount runner finished in the top 75 and that was Steven Hammond, who finished 55th at 27:06. Field Miller came in at 27:47, good for 77th place. Jesse Ramirez (27:52, 80th) and Dylan Hermalee (27:55, 82nd) came in four seconds and eight seconds later. Jamie McCann came in 97th at a time of 28:16 and Jake Clawson came in just a second later to round out the scoring runners with a 98th place finish. Noah Taylor finished 107th (28:50) and Chris Justice finished 122nd (29:55), but did not factor into the scoring. High Point University won the meet with 50 points, nine points ahead of host Appalachian State.