There may have been some unfamiliar faces donning Gold and Blue Saturday when the No. 15 West Virginia cross country team kicked of its season, but the results were the same.
The Mountaineers claimed the top seven spots in the WVU Invitational, led by first-place finisher Hallie Portner. Portner, a redshirt sophomore, paced WVU (15:02).
I was excited to see Hallie's poise," said WVU head coach Sean Cleary. "She was aggressive at the proper time, and her results are reflective of good summer training."
Aubrey Moskal (15:20) followed 18 seconds off the lead, good enough for second place, while Jordan Hamric (15:25) finished in third place.
Chelsea Jarvis (15:33) and Allison Pettit (15:37) finished fourth and fifth, respectively.
Jamie Cokeley and Lydia Martinelli rounded out the top seven for WVU.
"I was very impressed with our rate of improvement that we made over the past 12 months," Cleary said. "The team showed that they are capable of performing at a high level."
Though Cleary feels his team's performance was "equal to his expectations," he admits there is always work to do.
"The goal for every team in the country is to continue to work hard and stay away from injuries," he said. "The first few meets are more of a shaking off the cobwebs. We will need to take this race and add another mile at this speed if we want to be where we hope to be by season's end."
Former WVU standout Karly Hamric, running unattached, officially finished in first place but was not included in the events' final results.
The Mountaineers will travel to Syracuse, N.Y., Saturday to participate in the Big East Conference preview event hosted by Syracuse.
"This will be a good event for us, giving us an opportunity to preview the Big East course for later in the season," Cleary said. "We will walk away with a better understanding of what we need to improve on for the championships and we will get a chance to see our lineup fall into place."
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