Hamilton is Top Performer at The Notre Dame Invitational

by YSU

Saturday, Oct 5, 2013 10:07 am

Notre Dame, Ind.—The Youngstown State cross country teams competed today at the 58th annual Notre Dame Invitational this Friday afternoon with the women finishing 21st in the Elite Blue 5k Race with 475 points and the men finishing 16th in the Gold Race with 411 points. The top performers for the Penguins were senior Samantha Hamilton finishing in sixth place in the 5k race with a time of 17:12.9 and junior Eric Rupe placing 35th in the 5 mile race at a time of 26.24.5

The Youngstown State women finished 21st in this big race beating out UAB, Southern Utah, and UTEP who are all highly ranked in the top 10 of their respective regions. YSU women hope to move back into the top 15 in the region with beating EMU when combining races. Helping the Penguins' in returning is Hamilton placing sixth in the Blue Race while missing the top five by two seconds. This is the highest finish in YSU history at Notre Dame being sixth out of 160 runners in one of the top meets in the Nation. This reinforced that Samantha is one of the top 200 in the Nation.

Junior Anna Pompeo was the next penguin to cross the finish line placing 74th with a PB of 18:16.5 and following her was senior Monica Ciarniello coming in at 88th with a time of 18:23.0 for the Guins. For the women the Blue Race was the top 100 runners in the U.S. for this race. It's impressive what Samantha, Anna and Monica did to be up in the top 100.

Penguins Brittany Stockmaster ran a strong 19:16 in 85 degree weather to lock down the fourth spot for YSU and Freshman Libby Rogenski ran a 19:17 to latch the fifth spot for the Guins. Times and Performances of McKinsie Klim (19:24), Megan Monte (19:53), and Katey Heney (20:06) were all slowed down by 85 degree weather and 100% humidity but were among the other finishers for YSU.

YSU Men finished 16 out 23 in the Gold Race at Notre Dame. The men lost to Oakland but beat UIC, Valparasio and Green Bay to post a 3-1 record against Horizon teams. Eric Rupe led the Guins with a 33rd place finish good for 26:24 out of 193 runners. Following was Austin McLean (51st) who ran a 26:45, Nick Gliha (80th) at 27:07, John Hutnyan (121) 27:57, and Jon Richmond (123) at 28:02. It was a matter of survival for the guys over 5 miles with the tough conditions of 85 degrees and 100% humidity,

The next time YSU runs will be at the Disney World Cross Country Classic in Orlando, Fla.

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