For the first time in his collegiate career, Temple junior Alex Izewski placed first in a cross country meet with a time of 26 minutes, 20 seconds for men’s cross country at a tri-meet with Penn State and Duquesne University at University Park Saturday.
The women also raced against Towson University.
Coming in second was last meets top runner, junior Matt Kacyon. Kacyon ran with a time of 26:29. The two Temple juniors finished ahead of 32 other runners.
As a team, the men finished third in the 5.2-mile race and the women finished fourth in their 6-kilometer race.
Izewski is happy with his win and dedicates it to the training that cross country coaches James Snyder and Steve Fuelling have been holding.
“It’s reassuring and what we are doing training-wise is working,” Izewski said.
The turning point in the race, Izewski said, was around the 2K mark.
“Right around 2K, Matt and I made the call to go up front because everyone was bunching up and slowing down,” Izewski said.
This showed in the results as both Izewski and Kacyon finished 17 seconds faster than the third-place finisher.
For the women, senior Jenna Dubrow finished in second place with a time of 21:59 in a race of 40 total runners.
The next best time for the Temple women was freshman Katie Pinson. Pinson finished fifth with a time of 22:33.
In a little over a month, the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional meet will take place at the same venue.
Snyder felt this was an advantage for his men’s team.
“This was a great opportunity for the men to see the course they will be racing on at regionals in about a month,” Snyder said.
The next meet for the Owls is the American Athletic Conference meet on Oct. 31. The Owls will fly to the University of Tulsa for the meet.
Izewski said he is excited to see the results to all of the conferences.
“It’s going to be fun to see how conferences play out in three weeks,” Izewski said.
Edward LeFurge can be reached at edward.lefurge@temple.edu or on Twitter @EdLeFurgeIII.
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