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The Daily Tar Heel

UNC cross country team finish top-3 for men and women in Cavalier Classic

Cross Country Regionals
Erin Edmundson competing in a 2018 meet. The senior finished eighth in the women's 5k race with a time of 17:42.2.

The North Carolina cross country team competed in the Cavalier Classic on Saturday, where the women finished second, and the men placed third in Earlysville, VA Saturday morning.

What happened?

With only two events on the schedule— the men’s 8k and the women’s 5k— the Tar Heels
excelled in both.

In the men’s 8k, North Carolina had five runners place in the top 25 out of the 50 possible competitors. Senior Jeremy Brown led the way for the Tar Heels as his time of 24:31.5 earned a fifth-place finish. Shortly after, senior Matt Thornton placed ninth with a time of 24:40.0. The 14th spot went to redshirt junior Mitch Resor with 24:45.9. The Tar Heels also had sophomore John Tatter finish 19th and redshirt junior Alex Milligan finish 22nd to give UNC the third most spots in the top 25 behind Virginia and Duke. At the conclusion of the race North Carolina amassed 64 points, enough for a third-place finish.

With 47 total runners in the women’s 5k, seven Tar Heels finished in the top 25. During this event, graduate student Morgan Ilse placed second with 17:03.3. Junior Paige Hofstad followed with 17:09.2 for third place, and senior Erin Edmundson placed eighth with 17:42.2. The Tar Heels had first-years Lizzy Harding and Alex Morris claim the 14th and 15th spot, respectively. With the strong performances from the women, North Carolina finished with 42 points and earned a second-place finish.

Who stood out?

Brown led the Tar Heels in the men’s 8k with a fifth-place finish. The Tar Heels placed five of the 11 men in the top 25 with another nabbing 26th place. These five men were: Brown, Thornton, Resor, sophomore John Tatter and redshirt junior Alex Milligan.

The women's team performed strong collectively as Ilse, Hofstad and Edmundson placed within the top 10. Harding and Morris earned 14th and 15th. Junior Lindsey Lanier and Emmeline Fisher placed 18th and 24th as well.

When was it decided?

While North Carolina placed five men in the top 25 both Duke and Virginia placed 10 apiece. This put the men in third place early where they would finish out of five teams. 

Similarly, the women’s place was decided within the first 25 runners. North Carolina placed seven women in the top 25 but fell short to Tennessee. The Tar Heels placed a close second with 42 points. Tennessee won with 36.

Why does it matter?

Head coach Chris Miltenberg stressed staying focused all the way through and improvement in the team.

“I think that’s the hardest part of our sport is everybody is tough when things are going great, and we had some people that certainly ran great today too, but also like we did a good job of when things weren’t in a couple of spots of really continuing to put in great focus, great attitude and great effort all the way through,” Miltenberg said.

Miltenberg also stressed improvement over end results.

“To me it was still much more about how we were going to execute than what the end results were going to be,” Miltenberg said. “I wanted to see could we get better, and I think we really took a big step forward on both sides that consistency and dependability all the way through.”

Where do they play next?

The cross-country team has a near two-week gap before they travel to South Bend, Indiana to compete in the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational Friday Oct. 4.

@A_ReynoldsDTH

@DTHSports | sports@dailytarheel.com

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