Wheeling, W. Va. - With a stretch of tough competition ahead, the Wheeling University Men's and Women's Cross Country team competed at the Youngstown State Alumni Invitational on Saturday. The women competed in their second 5K of the season, while the Men took on an 8K for the first time as they competed against tough DI competition. The Women ended up leading the way with a PR on the day as the Cardinals competed on a slower than expected course.

The top performance of the day came from junior Sydney Hambel who set her 5K PR by five seconds. She would pick up her second top 20 finish of the season, taking 13th overall with a time of  19:32.50. She was the second place finisher among Mountain East Conference (MEC) competition, finishing 20 seconds behind Charleston's Madison Woolwine for the top spot in the conference as she continues to battle back from an injury filled season in 2022. Finishing behind her was junior Gabby Baiano, who would take 63rd in the field with a time of 21:34.45. Baiano and Hambel were the only two runners to break the 22-minute mark on the day as they continue their growth with every race.

Sophia Tomana, Keala McCurry, and Deja Ryals rounded out the day of competition for the Cardinals as they finished 11th overall as a team. Tomana just cracked the top 100 of the event, finishing 100th with a time of 24:11.02 as she continues to drop sub-25 times in her two races this season. Keala McCurry ran in her second 5K race of her career and put up a time of 27:55.03 to take 113th in the field. For McCurry, it was a three minute drop from her first 5K of the season as she competes in her first Cross Country season. The final competitor on the women's side was Deja Ryals, who competed in her first career Cross Country event. She finished 117th overall, running a time of 33:10 to finish strong.

On the men's side, the Cardinals had just one finisher in junior Hunter Tomich, who finished 42nd in the field. It was the first 8K race of the season for the guys, and Tomich would finish 42nd overall with a time of 28:40.90. It was just two minutes short of his PR in the 8K, as he continues to build up as the veteran leader for the Cardinals.

The Wheeling University Cross Country team returns to action on Saturday, October 5th, when they compete at the Live the Lou Cross Country Classic.