Gettysburg Opens Season at Shippensburg
Courtesy of Braden Snyder – Gettysburg Sports Information

SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. – The Gettysburg College men’s and women’s cross country teams opened their 2008 seasons at the Shippensburg Alumni Meet Saturday afternoon.

The men’s team finished with a team score of 71 to place third among six schools while the women’s squad took third among four teams with a 65-point tally.

Dickinson College won the men’s race with 35 points and was followed by Shippensburg (51), Gettysburg, Hagerstown Community College (123), Shippensburg Alumni (123), and Frostburg State (147).

A trio of Bullets led the men’s team, crossing the finish line three second apart. Sophomore Dan O’Neill (Monroe, N.Y./Don Bosco Prep) placed ninth with a time of 19:58 for the 6,000-meter course while junior Jeff Butterworth (Glen Mills, Pa./West Chester East) (10th, 20:00) and senior Greg Cumming (Bainbridge, N.Y./Bainbridge-Guilford) (12th, 20:01) were close behind.

Rounding out the team scoring for Gettysburg were freshman Brenden Repack (Merrimack, N.H./Merrimack), who took 22nd in 20:35, and sophomore Clay Reynolds (Medway, Mass./Worcester Academy), who was 25th in 20:50.

Also cracking the team’s top-seven were juniors Greg Williams (Brookline, Mass./Brookline) (28th, 20:54) and Adrian Macdonald (Westwood, Mass./Westwood).

The Bullets ran without two of their top runners – junior Chris McCullough (Havertown, Pa./Malvern Prep) and senior Frank Hoban (Dunmore, Pa./Dunmore).

Dan Helfrick of the Shippensburg Alumni won the race in 19:19.

In the women’s team standings, Shippensburg came out on top with 18 points. Dickinson was second with a score of 55 while Gettysburg and Frostburg State (110) followed suit.

Junior Kerrin Epstein (Moravia, N.Y./Moravia) ran an outstanding race for the Bullets, clocking a 14:37 over the 4,000-meter course to finish third. She was just eight seconds behind winner Neely Spence of Shippensburg.

Junior Sarah Fritz (Ledyard, Conn./Ledyard) also broke the top-10 for Gettysburg, taking ninth in 15:23. Senior Rachel Guthridge (Schwenksville, Pa./The Hill School) finished 15th in 15:47 while senior Becca Zabel (Frederick, Md./Urbana) (16th, 15:51) and freshman Amanda Pellowe (Alton, N.H./Prospect Mountain) (34th, 17:08) completed the team scoring.

Freshman Erica Forzley (South Windsor, Conn./South Windsor) (35th, 17:09) and junior Sara Coleman (Langhorne, Pa./Neshaminy) (36th, 17:18) were Gettysburg’s No. 6-7 runners.

Both teams return to action next Saturday at the Lebanon Valley Invitational, held at Memorial Lake State Park in Fort Indiantown Gap, Pa.