Men’s cross country takes third place at PACs
This past Saturday, the men’s cross-country team traveled to Bethany, West Virginia to compete in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference Championships.
Waynesburg did well in the team standings by placing third out of the nine teams competing.
Sophomore Brendan Keany continued his consistent season by finishing fourth out of the 99 total runners.
In the race, the top-seven finishers in Saturday’s championship race received All-PAC First Team recognition. Runners who placed eighth through 14th earned All-PAC Second Team honors and runners finishing 15th through 21st claimed honorable mention recognition.
With the fourth place finish, Keany was lauded with first team recognition; however, he wasn’t the only Yellow Jacket who garnered recognition from the conference. Sophomore Cody Nail was named an honorable mention with his 17th place finish
Overall Keany seemed happy with his performance.
“It was an honor to be first team All-PAC because that was my main goal heading into the race,” said Keany. “To be mentioned in the same sentence and seen in the same photo as some phenomenal runners is humbling.”
Keany is used to this sort of attention because throughout the year he’s been Waynesburg’s most consistent and decorated runner.
With that big of a field of runners, Keany didn’t seem to be rattled and tried to focus on the race in itself and control what he could.
“It definitely was a confidence boost to come in fourth place,” said Keany. “However, I don’t want to become complacent with that. If anything it makes me hungrier for next season. I’m still going to work hard, maybe harder than I ever have to get better.”
Last year at the PAC Championships, Nail placed 20th and received honorable mention.
“It means a lot to me receiving honorable mention this year,” said Nail. “As a team, we knew this year was going to be very competitive to place in the top twenty. Last year I received the same award but for 20th place. Getting this award again, but for 17th place shows to that I am improving as a runner.”
With the Jackets placing third, both Keany and Nail feel it should be a confidence boost both individually and with the entire team heading into regionals.
“I’m hoping that now since my heart for running and drive to compete is back that I can come into regionals and peak at the right time,” said Nail. “I want to help the team get a higher rank in the region.”
Keany is using the PAC championships as a boost for regional competition.
“I really have no expectations for regionals,” said Keany. “But I’m just going to go all out and leave nothing on the table because I have nothing to lose.”
The Jackets return to
action on Saturday, Nov. 15 when they travel to Newville, Pennsylvania to compete in the NCAA Division III
Mideast Regionals.