UNC men's cross country team takes eighth at practice meet for NCAA championship

In fewer than 35 days, the NCAA Cross Country Championships will be held at the LaVern Gibson Championship course in Terre Haute, Ind.

In order to gain every advantage possible, the men of the UNC cross country team traveled to the same cross country course to compete in the Indiana State University Pre-Nationals Invitational on Saturday.

The runners met coach Peter Watson’s expectations with an eighth place overall finish at the race.

“We figured if we went in there and hit everything perfectly, we were going to be around seventh to ninth, so it’s right where we expected to be, where we were hoping to be,” UNC coach Watson said.

The team placed better than 27 other teams, including No. 30 University of Florida. The only unranked team to place higher than the Tar Heels was University of California, which landed a seventh-place finish by a distance of 103 points.

“We knew we had to beat Florida, we knew we had to beat Michigan State, there were some other schools that we needed to beat that we didn’t beat,” senior Evan Watchempino said. “The big key was to beat Florida because they’re going to be an automatic qualifier at our region. We still feel like we can run better.”

Watchempino finished 23rd out of 231 runners with a time of 24:08.7.

“I think I ran average,” Watchempino said. “There were some guys who I’ve beaten in the past who finished in front of me today.”

Redshirt junior Adam Cunningham finished close behind in 45th place with a time of 24:23.6.

The younger runners also turned in solid performances, as freshman Jake Hurysz turned in a 59th-place finish of 24:32.7.

While many teams had freshman who broke 25 minutes, the Tar Heels were in a class of their own as three freshman, including Hurysz, recorded times of less than 25 minutes.

The team ran against the top-seeded runners in the country, giving it a preview of the more important races to come in the next month.

“Running with the Stanford guys, the No. 1 team in the nation, was cool,” Watchempino said. “It was cool to be up there competing with them.”

The team resumes action on Oct. 30 in the ACC Championships in Boston. In the two-week break, the runners hope to continue to make improvements.

“We need to get a couple more people up there running with Jake and right around the fourth and fifth spot,” Watson said. “Evan and Adam need to step up, as well. There’s no easy points or easy teams to beat in the ACC.

“We’re definitely going in the right direction and we’re right along the edge of being a national-class program.”

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.