Syracuse cross-country: Savannah Roark shines at NCAA Championships

Syracuse Orange sophomore Savannah Roark must love running at Oklahoma State. After finishing in the top 10 at the Cowboy Jamboree in September, Roark finished 23rd at the NCAA Championships on Saturday helping the Orange to a 23rd place team finish.

Roark’s time of 20:02 for the 6k course was 35 seconds faster than her time from September. The race featured 19 athletes under the existing course record, led by NC State’s Katelyn Tuohy, and Roark’s time was only a second off the mark. This is the 2nd highest NCAA finish for a Syracuse woman in program history and caps a tremendous season for Roark with All-American honors.

The other Syracuse runners were Abigail Spiers (124th), Sophia Jacobs-Townsley (139th), Eleanor Lawlor (185th), Ivy Gonzales (189th), Shona McCullough (221st) and Olivia Joly (252nd). NC State defended their team title with New Mexico finishing 2nd.

The men’s race was even closer. Stanford’s Charles Hicks won the individual race by less than a second over Northern Arizona’s Nico Young, while NAU took the team title over Oklahoma State via tie-breaker. The Syracuse men finished 12th- right behind North Carolina and NC State.

Nathan Lawler was the top finisher for the Orange in 46th place. He was followed by Paul O’Donnell (58th), Nathan Henderson (81st), Noah Carey (82nd), Sam Lawler (110th), Assaf Harari (123rd) and Matt Scrape (154th).

Now the attention turns to indoor track- time to see some sprinters and hurdlers out there with these distance runners.