Sports > September 20, 2007

By Ryan Durham | Sports editor

The Wake Forest men’s and women’s cross country teams faired well in the different events held Sept. 14.

The men’s team finished second in the Raleigh Invitational and the women’s team came in fourth place at the Boston College Inviational.

The men’s team was spearheaded by freshman Keaton Morgan. Morgan finished sixth overall in the event with a time of 16:00 and was the first non-N.C. State runner to cross the finish.

Morgan was only 42 seconds behind the first place finisher John Martinez.

The freshman was not the only Deacon to finish the race well. The other four Wake Forest runners all finished in the Top 20.

Senior John Compton finished with a time of 16:13, good enough for eighth place.

Rounding out the Top 20 were junior Jeremy Fisico, redshirt freshman Patrick Russell and senior Chris Catton.The three runners placed 13th, 17th and 19th, respectively.This allowed the Deacs to be one of two teams with under 100 points and put them second out of 11 teams. The men’s cross country was not the only one to be successful.

The women’s team also managed a fourth place finish in the Boston College Invitational.

Junior Caitlin Chrisman led the Deacs with a time of 17:31 in the event, good enough to take fifth place honors individually.

Two other Deacons also finished in the Top 20 runners. Freshman Marley Burns finished with a time of 17:56, good for 17th place, and junior Nicole Schappert finished with a time of 18:03, which was good for 20th at the meet.

Also scoring for the Deacons were freshman Chelsea Bolton and junior Merry Placer.

Bolton finished with a time of 18:18, placing here in 27th place.Placer was not far behind timewise, with a final of 18:42, but was only able to manage 40th in the event.

The performance gave the Deacs 106 points on the day, good for fourth place.

Syracuse University won the event with a score of 62.

Both teams will return to action Sept. 29. The men will run at the Greater Louisville Classic and the women at the Bill Dellinger Cross Country Invitational in Eugene, Ore.