ELKINS, W.Va. — The West Virginia Wesleyan cross country program began the 2021 campaign on Friday (Sept. 3) at the Route 33 Cup hosted by Davis & Elkins.

Tori Carr led the way for both teams finishing the highest out of all Wesleyan competitors. The senior from Kingwood, W.Va., finished second (18:35.09) out of 25 competitors. Both teams took home second place on the day with the men finishing with 59 as the women’s team compiled 40 points.

On the women’s side, freshman Leigha Hall kicked off her career in the Orange & Black with a top-10 finish overall and second on the team (19:26.43). Lauren Chickosky finished one position behind Hall coming in seventh place with a time of 19:58.93. Rounding out the team scoring for the ‘Cats was Alexa Gorondy (20:55.64) and Alexis Imperial (21:11.14) finishing 12th and 14th respectively.

On the men’s side, freshman Jacob Defibaugh led the Bobcats with a top-10 finish in his first collegiate race. Defibaugh took home ninth place with a time of 15:52.14. Evan Pyles and Anthony Sanders finished back-to-back finishing 11th and 12th with times of 16:10.88 and 16:12.84 respectively. Christian Cimaglia and Elijah Hannig rounded out the scoring for the ‘Cats by taking home 14th (16:18.99) and 15th (16:24.33).

Both cross country teams will be back in action on Saturday, Sept. 11 at the Bethany Invitational.