Syracuse track and field: distance runners deliver at Stanford

The Syracuse Orange distance runners headed west to find some warm weather and fast outdoor times at the Stanford Invitational last weekend. NCAA Outdoors is all about getting your regional qualifying time and then preparing to run your best at the regional meet. What that leads to is teams searching for meets with deep fields to run those fast times and that’s why the Orange were out on the West Coast.

Two Syracuse women competed at Stanford. Abigail Spiers was 5th in the 10,000m in a time of 34:17. This currently puts her 17th in the East region in the event. Annie Boos was 4th in the 3,000m steeplechase in a time of 10:10, which is 6th in the East region right now. I’d expect both to run the events at the ACC Championships while also trying to get qualifying times in the 5000m at one of Syracuse’s next meets.

For the men, Nathan Henderson was 6th in the 5000m in a time of 13:44 which puts him 3rd in the East so far this season. Three Orange runners were in the 10,000m: Joe Dragon was 14th in a time of 28:34 with JP Trojan closely behind in 16th place in a time of 28:35 while Matt Scrape finished 9th in his heat with a time of 29:07. The trio is ranked 9th, 10th and 24th in the East region right now. Dragon and Trojan are also within shouting distance of Iliass Aouani’s school record of 28:25 in the event. Like the women, these runners will likely be in different events (Henderson in the 1500 and the others in the 5,000) to give themselves options at the Regional meet.

Speaking of Aouani he made his marathon debut over the weekend and ran 2:08:35 to finish 10th in the Milan Marathon. His time is the 8th fastest in Italian history. At the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler in DC on Sunday, Paige Stoner and Sarah Pagano were 3th and 4th in the women’s overall division.

Syracuse will be back in action next weekend at Miami for the Hurricane Invitational.