It was a successful day for the ASU men's and women's cross country teams at the ASU Invitational meet on Friday afternoon.
The women's team took the top spot in its three-mile race by narrowly edging the University of Arizona, while the men's team finished in second in its four-mile race behind the B team from top-ranked Northern Arizona.
But competition was not the main goal of this meet. The objective was to prepare for the Pac-12 Championships next Friday in Tucson, so the runners did not stress the importance of winning.
The Sun Devils went into the race with the idea of using it as a tune-up.
"The main goal for this race was to kind of get a tempo workout in before Pac-12's next week, so coach (Louie Quintana) gave us some pretty strict guidelines before the race to just kind of chill back," ASU freshman runner John Reniewicki said after the race.
Reniewicki also added that the ASU Invitational was between two big races for the team, so it used this race as more of a practice in order to avoid overexerting themselves.
"I feel like the team score was pretty irrelevant today," Reniewicki said. "At the end of the day it was a glorified workout for us."
Despite finishing first, the women's team employed the same strategy as the men.
"We were supposed to not go out too hard, just kind of stick with our set pace that our coach gave us," ASU freshman runner Kelly Schock said. "We did a good job of that."
As for specific results, the Sun Devil runners fared well.
In the women's three-mile race, freshman Courtney Lewis and junior Billie Jo Dytrt finished their race fifth and sixth, with times of 18:45.10 and 18:45.49 respectively.
For the men, the highest finisher in the four-mile race for ASU was redshirt senior CJ Albertson who came in fourth place with a time of 20:45.90.
Strong finish for CJ Albertson! #MaroonMonsoon pic.twitter.com/31Fjvfqh2U
— SunDevilTFXC (@SunDevilTFXC) October 22, 2016
Reniewicki and redshirt sophomore Brandon Boys rounded out the top ten for the Sun Devils by finishing in fifth and eighth place, respectively. Reniewicki bolted to a 20:54.95 time while Boys raced to a 21:17.08 mark.
ASU will head south to Tucson for the Pac-12 Cross Country Championships on Oct. 28. The Sun Devils have a tough meet ahead of them, as the Pac-12 contains four teams in the top ten of the NCAA rankings.
Related Links:
Brother-sister duo making an impact on ASU cross country
ASU cross country keeps strong start rolling in Tucson
Reach the reporter at mpharri7@asu.edu or follow @Harris_Mark7 on Twitter.
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