Slippery Rock men’s cross country team competed in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Atlantic Region Championships on Saturday at Lock Haven’s West Branch XC course. The race kicked off at 11:45 Saturday morning.
12 schools competed in the race. The Rock was the sixth Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) school in the standings. The team came out in 12th place with a score of 335 points, just 15 points behind Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Shippensburg University claimed first place with a team score of 60 points. Leading the Raiders was Garrett Quinan with a third-place finish in 30:21.
First to cross the finish line in SRU fashion was sophomore Michael Gauntner with a time of 33:01.50, just three minutes behind the top finisher from Fayetteville State University.
Gaunter, as a freshman, finished in the top five three times last season. On Saturday, for the first time in his collegiate career, he led the charge with a 61st-place finish.
Just seconds behind him were John Juszynski in 65th and Easton Adamczyk in 66th, both crossing the finish line in the 34th minute.
Last season, Juszynski earned All-PSAC honors after placing third with a season-best steeplechase time of 9:28.
Eli Schreiber (71st) and Jonah Lindstrom (81st) rounded out the White and Green’s top five scorers, also finishing in the 34th minute.
Sophomore Schreiber tied for second on SRU in the team top five in the 2024 season, tallying four. His very first race was the Doug Watts Open, where he finished fourth with a time of 19:56.
Only 28 seconds separated The Rock’s top five.
Dylan Ribelin crossed the finish line one spot behind in 82nd with a time of 33:30.
Alex Morris finished for The Rock runners in 131st place in 36:12.
The NCAA Atlantic Region Championship marked the end of the cross country season. A number of Rock runners will now shift their focus to the indoor track and field season, which is set to begin in December.
