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The Syracuse Orange rolled out most of their top runners last Friday at the Harry Groves Spiked Shoe Invitational. The men dominated the field to take the win while the women turned in a 2nd place finish.
Even without top runner Aidan Tooker, the Syracuse men finished 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 7th to score 21 points and easily outpace the runner-up Penn State Nittany Lions who had 57 points. Iliass Aouani (25:40) and Kevin James (25:43) led the way over the 8.4k course and Noah Affolder (25:50.4), Joe Dragon (25:50.8) and Simon Smith (26:08) completed the scoring. Aouani and James will be key members of the team this Fall and their ability to deliver in big meets could propel the Orange to surprise people in November.
The Syracuse women scored 55 points to take 2nd behind the host Nittany Lions. Madeleine Davison (21:02) and Rachel Bonner (21:03) were 4th and 5th overall in the 6k race. Abigail Spiers (21:19) followed up her win last week with a 9th place finish while Mary Malone (10th in 21:26) and Olivia Elston (27th in 22:15) completed the Syracuse scoring.
Both Orange teams beat the Georgetown Hoyas on Friday which we also welcome around these parts. The XC squads head back into competition on September 21st when they travel to Boston for the Coast to Coast Challenge.