By: Kate Wiggins
The Canisius men’s and women’s cross country team headed to South Bend, In. on September 17 to compete in the National Catholic Championship hosted by Notre Dame, where the men’s team took fifth place and the women’s team took 11th.
After coming off of a winning sweep in the Three Little Championship against Niagara and St. Bonaventure, the Golden Griffs competed with some of the strongest Catholic schools on the east coast in this meet.
For the men, junior Tom Appenhiemer took the team lead placing fifteenth with a time of 26:14.7. Fellow teammates senior Michael Peppy and junior Andrew Perreault took 21st and 23rd, respectively, to bring the men’s team to a fifth-place finish with 165 points.
Senior Libby Benzer led the pack again for the Griffs coming in 24th place with a time of 19:21.25. Junior Olivia Moran came in next for the Griffs coming in 50th place with a time of 20:12.3. The women’s team finished in 11th place with 265 points, coming in short behind Detroit Mercy.
Next up on the schedule for the cross county team is the Paul Short Invitational in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, hosted by Lehigh University on October 1. And soon afterward is Canisius’s own Alumni Classic on October 16. This is all ultimately in preparation for the MAAC Championship, which will be held in Florida this year at the ESPN World Wide of Sports Complex in late October and then — hopefully — the NCAA Northeast Regional Championships.