The Sun Devil men's and women's cross country teams held the annual ASU Invitational on Friday afternoon at Kiwanis Park in Tempe.
Although the Sun Devils served as hosts, most of their top runners were kept out of competition to prepare for the NCAA Pre-Nationals, which are scheduled for Oct. 19 in Terre Haute, Ind. The ASU Invitational enabled several runners to gain more experience for the future.
"The people not going to nationals are still very good, and they need to understand the urgency when they run," Sun Devil head coach Walt Drenth said. "We lacked that sense of urgency Friday."
Most of the top runners from the ranked teams in competition stayed home. However, that didn't stop the No. 1 Stanford men's squad from earning a victory and boasting the top individual finisher in junior Andrew Hill. The 23rd-ranked ASU men's team finished in third place, 31 points behind archrival UA.
The top finisher for the Sun Devil men's squad was junior Patrick Keller, who came in at the No. 11 spot with a time of 24:55. Following Keller was redshirt freshman Roger Cahill (24th, 25:57), freshman Griffin Lee (26th, 26:09), senior Mike Peditto (28th, 26:15) and junior Anthony Santa Cruz (33rd, 26:26).
On the women's side, No. 1 Brigham Young garnered first place by claiming the top five spots. Sixth-ranked ASU logged a second-place finish.
Finishing tops among the Sun Devil women's squad was senior Lisa Pohlit, who came in at the No. 14 spot with a time of 18:52. Junior Megan Laib clocked in at 18:57 to take 16th, while freshman Jenna Wreiden (19th, 19:19), senior Cody Sohn (20th, 19:22) and sophomore Penny Jacobson (21st, 19:25) rounded out ASU's finishers.
"I thought we were competitive, but not quite as good as we're capable of being," Drenth said.
Reach the reporter at katie.crane@asu.edu.
