Marteny wins Bud Smitley Invitational, Fayette men dominate
Nyoah Marteny won the Bud Smitley Invitational men's race Saturday and Penn State Fayette dominated the race with nine of the top 14 finishers.
"Our focus was to team and pack and it was evident today," sad head coach Joe Carei. "We had 31 seconds between our top five.
"(The race) was a confidence booster heading into our home invitational and championship season."
Fayette ran in a total time of 1:27:09, which was a full two minutes better than second place Lebanon Valley, with the race taking place at Penn State Harrisburg.
Marteny (Perryopolis, PA/Frazier), a junior, ran the 3.2-mile race in 17:05.4, 10 seconds better than Lebanon Valley's Vince Ferrizzi.
A quartet of Fayette runners took third through sixth and were within eight seconds of each other as Ryan Semle (Uxbridge, MA/Uxbridge HS) was third in 17:24, Ben Witt (Uniontown, PA/Uniontown HS) was fourth in 17:26, Joe O'Connell (West Mifflin, PA/West Mifflin HS) was fifth in 17:29 and Mitchell Minda (Elizabeth, PA/Elizabeth Forward HS) finished sixth in 17:32.
Two other Nittany Lions finished in the top 10 as Drew Erdman (Greensburg, PA/Greensburg Salem HS) finished eighth in 17:41 and Michael Elliott (Clarksville, PA/Beth-Center HS) finished ninth in 17:48.
Stephen Lacek (Fort Cherry, PA/Fort Cherry HS) and Arlo Helms (Connellsville, PA/Connellsville HS) also finished in the top 14 as Lacek was 13th with a time of 18:18 and Helms was 14th with a time of 18:20.
In the women's race, Fayette finished seventh with a combined time of 2:23:41.
"The women showed that they are growing as runners and continue to do better across the board," Carei said. "It is exciting to see as we have had a hard time getting our women's program off of the ground."
Casey Falcon (Beth-Center, PA/Beth-Center HS) looked best for Fayette in a time of 26:32.
The Roaring Lions Invitational takes place Saturday at Penn State Fayette with the PSUAC Championship taking place October 26 and the USCAA Nationals on November 8.
For more information on the team, go to https://www.psfathletics.com/sports/xc/index.