Newark, NJ - A fast course and great competition made perfect conditions for the Panther Harriers to post both season and career bests. The venue was Branch Brook Park in downtown Newark, and hosts, NJIT along with over 30 other teams served as motivation for the Panthers to push themselves.
Four members of the Panther's women's team posted all-time PR's in the 5000m. Briana Miranda led the Panthers with a 32nd place finish out of 186 competitors, and bested her all-time 5k performance by over a minute, finishing the course n 20:34. Kayleigh Simpson finished in 58th, and dropped over 45 seconds off her all-time 5k time with a time of 22:17. Morgan Muller dropped over a minute off her all-time best to finish in 24:18, and Rosemary Macri took nearly 20 seconds off her best time, finishing in 24:58. Marina Duszak continued her impressive recovery from off-season knee surgery to drop almost three minutes off her season-best time, finishing the race in 24:34.
As a team, the women finished 11th of 26 complete teams, defeating NCAA Division 2 and Division 3 competition along the way.
On the Men's side, all three Panther runners posted post either season or all-time bests. Freshman Andy Tran led the Panthers with an impressive 4 minute drop off his all t-time 8k effort, finishing the race in 39:13. Nickolaus Maliszewski finished next for the Panthers, besting his all-time 8000m time in 41:11. David Martin rounded out the men's team with a three minute improvement on his season best finishing in 44:31.
Coach Samson Dikeman said, "I told our athletes this is the week where they would start to see the fruits of the labor they put in this summer. The performances were incredible, with every athlete posting either an all-time or season best. I continue to be impressed with our women's team who showed again today that they can hang with NCAA DI, DII, and DIII competition. I'm also very pleased to see our Freshman, Kayleigh and Andy make big improvements. Our future looks really bright and I'm excited to see how this season ends."
The Panthers will next compete at YSCC Championships on October 29th, hosted by Vermont Tech.
Results:
https://www.arrowliveresults.com/MenNJITHighlanderXCChallenge
https://www.arrowliveresults.com/WomenNJITHighlanderXCChallenge
