Women's XC Opens Season With Win Over Syracuse

Saturday, September 12

Montgomery, NY

Army West Point

Syracuse University

Women's XC Opens Season With Win Over Syracuse

September 12, 2020 | Women's Cross Country

MONTGOMERY, N.Y. – The Army West Point women's cross country team kicked-off its 2020 season with a 26-33 victory over Syracuse at Twin Ponds on the Farm in Montgomery, N.Y. on Saturday.

In the team's first competition following the COVID-19 outbreak, the Black Knights were strong throughout, claiming nine of the top 12 positions in the meet. In their collegiate debut, freshmen Georgia Jones and Helen Shearer led the cadets with second and third place individual finishes. Senior All-ACC and All-Region performer Amanda Vestri finished first for the Orange.

It was the first head-to-head competition between the two programs since 1996, when the Army defeated Syracuse 68-74. The Orange entered the season ranked fourth in the ACC after finishing 2019 ranked fifth in the Northeast Region.

The Black Knights now turn their attention to continued competition in the fall. Earlier this week, Army announced that it will take on Navy in the annual Army-Navy Star Meet on October 17 in Annapolis, Md.

COACH'S CORNER: Head Coach Mike Smith
"We ran exceptionally well today. After a summer of uncertainty, it was important for us to have this competition. With only three teams in our geographic region still competing this fall, we had to hope that either or both of them (Syracuse and Boston College) would be willing to compete with us and we were fortunate to get a date worked out with Syracuse that worked for both teams.

The course was challenging and our women really used that to our advantage against a good team. I thought we were disciplined in the early going and that paid dividends on the hills at the end of the race. We were down 1-2 points midway through the race, and then we pulled even with a mile to go. Then in that last mile we did a nice job of packing up and moving up and that made the difference.

I expected us to be competitive but we were better than I would have predicted. That is largely due to the performances of our plebes today. They were fearless and that was a nice surprise. I have seen a lot from them in practice, but racing and training are two different things. It was impressive to see how they attacked the race and the opponent. Georgia Jones and Helen Shearer were gritty in their attack mid race. They set the tone and the rest of the women followed suit. We kept moving up all the way to the finish line. It was great to see.

In the end I am proud of how we performed and look forward to seeing how we respond going into the next few weeks. We have many more challenges ahead of us."