BETHPAGE, NY (Oct. 23, 2026) - In their final race before the CACC Conference Championship meet, Georgian Court Cross Country enjoyed a successful afternoon as both the men's and women's teams placed in the top-five. The Lions ran at the Adelphi Short Course Showdown with both teams running 5K races at the Polo in the Park course in Bethpage State Park.
The afternoon started with the men's 5K race. It was the second time this season the men have raced 5,000m and first since Sept. 12 at the Stevens Tech Invitational. All six Lions ran season-best times in the 5K and four ran personal-best times.
Ryan Pettrow was back in front for GCU. He finished in 23rd place running a personal-best time 16:09.6.
Richard Riopel was also in the top-30. His time of 16:23.7 was a collegiate PR for the freshman and put him in 29th place.
Zachary Spoonire made the top-40 finishing in 40th place and running a season-best 17:10.3.
Colin Broadbelt and
Stephen Lane both hit personal-bests by more than a minute. Broadbelt ran 17:29.2 for 43rd place, besting his previous GCU-best by 71 seconds. Lane set a new PR by 69 seconds running 17:39.0 for 48th place. It was the first time either broke 18 minutes in the 5K.
Luke McCormick was the Lions final finisher. He ran a season-best 18:06.0 for 52nd place.
As a team, Georgian Court finished fourth in the 11-team field and were tops among five CACC schools. Division I Stony Brook won the meet. Their freshman Alexander Medina was the top collegiate finisher, running 15:16.2. Unattached athlete Michael Hawkins led the field of 90 running 15:03.7.
Georgian Court's women's team was also the top CACC school among the four in the meet. The Lions finished in fifth place in the 10-team field with four of six running personal-best times.
Sophia Mauro once again led GCU. She finished in 17th place with a personal-best 5K time of 19:33.5. That moves her to fourth all-time in Lions history. Also making the top-30 in the race was
Dori O'Halloran. She ran 20:34.8 for 29th place.
Nena Menard ran her second collegiate 5K and bettered her time finishing in 21:13.5 for 35th place.
The duo of
Nora Sprunger and
Azucena Martinez-Panesso once again finished back-to-back in 49th and 50th place. Sprunger was 49th running 22:50.4. Martinez-Panesso ran a season-best time 22:57.1 for 50th place. It was the third time this season the two have finished back-to-back.
Julisa Sanchez Ponce rounded out the field for GCU in 76th place running a personal-best 29:09.3.
East Stroudsburg won the team championship with 20 points. The host school, Adelphi, had the individual champion as Kathleen Healy ran 18:08.7 to best the field of 83 and win the meet.
This marks the end of the regular season for Georgian Court who finished with three meets in three straight weeks. They'll take a week off before turning their attention to the CACC Championship meet Sunday, November 8. The Lions are the host of the meet for the first time ever at Ocean County Park in Lakewood, NJ.
