Quantcast The Rocket
College Media Network
dna-canned
dna-canned

Current Issue:

Cross country picture perfect at IUP Invitational

By Josh Rizzo
Rocket Contributor

Issue date: 9/21/07 Section: Sports
  • Print
  • Email
Rock cross-country runners achieve a rare feat during last weekend's IUP Invitational. The Rock received a perfect score of 15, which Head Coach John Papa has only seen twice in 23 years of coaching. SRU runners finished 1-2-3-4-5 to help the Green and White take first place.
Media Credit: Submitted Photo
Rock cross-country runners achieve a rare feat during last weekend's IUP Invitational. The Rock received a perfect score of 15, which Head Coach John Papa has only seen twice in 23 years of coaching. SRU runners finished 1-2-3-4-5 to help the Green and White take first place.
[Click to enlarge]
The Slippery Rock men's cross-country squad accomplished a rare feat at the Indiana University of Pa. Invitational last Saturday.

Five of the team's runners tied for first place after crossing the finish line at the same time.

There were seven teams represented at the meet, with 79 runners taking part in the event.

Junior Kevin Dustin was given the victory after tying with teammates Pat Reagan, Chris Geddis, Jeff Weiss and Matt Bluman.

All five runners ran the five-mile course with identical times of 27:12. The perfect score of 15 easily won the meet for the Rock, which finished 29 points ahead of second-place California University of Pa..

The victory will more than likely move the No. 8-ranked Rock squad higher in the rankings.

The victory was the first of Dustin's collegiate career.

Dustin said he's still excited about winning his first race and that the excitement has even extended to his apartment.

"It was a lot of fun to bring a trophy back to the apartment," said Dustin. "I am really excited about how the team is doing, and our goal is to qualify for nationals."

The men's team is currently ranked No. 1 in the conference.

The top two teams from each conference qualify for nationals.

The team's perfect score, however, was one of the greatest performances a Rock team has ever produced under Papa.

"Receiving a perfect score is as rare as a perfect game in baseball," Papa said. "I have only seen the feat accomplished twice in my 23 years of coaching at SRU."

The last time Papa saw the feat accomplished was at the Division II National Championships, which were hosted by SRU in 1992. Adams State (Colo.) had five runners finish in the top five to achieve a perfect score of 15.
Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools

Subscribe:
The Online Rocket's Content Posting Policy
Comments which include profanity, personal attacks, or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. We will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use, privacy policies, or any other policies governing this site at the time of posting. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. Abuse of this feature may lead to the termination of your account or complete removal of this feature. Your posting of content on this website indicates acceptance of these rules. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.

Attention: all comments are manually reviewed by a member of the editorial board. Please be patient and DO NOT RE-POST!

Be the first to comment on this story

  • NOTE: Email address will not be published

Type your comment below (html not allowed)

  I understand posting spam or other comments that are unrelated to this article will cause my comment to be flagged for deletion and possibly cause my IP address to be permanently banned from this server.




© The Rocket. All rights reserved. No portion of this web site may be reproduced or distributed without the permission of The Rocket's Editor-in-Chief.

Advertisement

Burning Question

What are you looking forward to most about Thanksgiving?
Submit Vote

View Results

AP Video

Advertisement