The Arizona men’s and women’s cross country teams competed in the Virginia/Panorama Farms Invitational on Friday, with the men coming in fifth place and the women finishing fourth overall.

The meet, held in Earlysville, Va., included a number of top East Coast programs. Host Virginia took home first place on both sides.

Senior Kristina Aubert had the strongest showing for the Wildcats, as she finished second overall in the 6K race with a time of 20:40.49. On the men’s side, senior Sam Macaluso led the way in the 8,000 meter race with an 11th-place finish.

“I think we definitely have a mix of some good performances and some disappointments,” Arizona head coach James Li said in a press release. “Overall, the team’s performance was a little below what I hoped we would do. It’s a very tough course here, probably tougher than anywhere we have run in a good number of years. But, overall, many of the athletes did really well.”

In the women’s race, senior Stephanie Bulder was Arizona’s second finisher with a 17th-place finish. Senior Clea Formaz was right behind at 19th place, and junior Molly Callahan came in 25th overall. The final scorer for the women was senior Amanda Russell, who finished 33rd.

The women earned 95 points, just shy of cracking the top three.
“For the women to finish one point behind Wake Forest was difficult,” Li said. “We could’ve done better. We have a good group, but we just need to move the group closer to our front runner.”

On the men’s side, freshman Bailey Roth finished 19th overall, second for the Wildcats behind Macaluso.

“Bailey [Roth], being his first ever 8K, longest race in his life, that was a great run by him,” Li said. “I was really proud of him.”

Senior Kenji Bierig was next to finish for the men, coming in at 25th overall. The final two Arizona scorers were sophomore Collins Kibet in 28th place and senior Jonas Legernes at 71st overall.

“This is the first race we really ran a full team,” Li said. “If we could get our fifth and sixth person closer to the front, we can do that, but we just have to get it done. We can’t talk about it; we have to get it done.”

The Arizona men’s and women’s cross country teams now have about three weeks before their next meet on Oct. 17 at the Wisconsin adidas Invitational in Madison, Wis.
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Follow Ezra Amacher on Twitter @EzraAmacher