GREENVILLE, N.C. – The East Carolina cross country program will play host to the 2023 American Athletic Conference Cross Country Championships on Saturday at Overton’s Lake Kristi. The meet is free for fans to attend and will be available for streaming on ESPN+.
It is the Pirates’ first time hosting a conference championship meet since 2015.
The meet is set to begin with the men’s 8K race at 9 a.m. with the women set to follow at 10:15 a.m. with their 6K competition.
Pirates entered in the meet on the men’s side are Alex Sawyer (check out this recent feature on Sawyer), Elliott Kleckner, Ted Sielatycki, Colin McCauley, Conner O’Shea, Zach Willer, Sam Dewar, Cooper Kleckner and Ashton Tolson.
On the women’s side, the Pirates will be represented by a combination of Alyssa Zack, Hayley Whoolery, Jessica Neal, Lily Schlossberg, Allysa Combs, Navaya Zales, Claire Cashman, Brianna Winsett and Abrielle Schweitzer.
Last Time Out
The Pirates hosted the annual Pirate Invitational on Saturday at Overton’s Lake Kristi. The Pirate women took home the team win in the event while the men ran to a fourth-place finish.
The victory for the women was the second for the Pirates at their home meet in three years with the ladies taking the 2021 iteration of the race as well. On Saturday, the team was led by Alyssa Zack, Hayley Whoolery, Navaya Zales and Jessica Neal finishing 5-10-12-15 for three, five, seven and 10 points, respectively. Zack’s time of 21:21.7 was nearly 50 seconds than her finish at the home meet in 2022. Allysa Combs rounded out the ECU scoring in 32nd.
Lily Schlossberg (36th), Brianna Winsett (40th) and Abrielle Schweitzer (66th) also competed for the Pirates.
The men were led by Alex Sawyer with his seventh-place finish in 24:00.3 on the 8K course. Colin McCauley took 18th (24:38.2) while Ted Sielatycki also earned a top-25 finish while sneaking under 25 minutes at 24:58.1. Cooper Kleckner (29th) and Conner O’Shea (31st) rounded out the scoring with Elliott Kleckner following up close behind in 33rd.
Zach Willer (38th), Sam Dewar (40th) and Ethan Corrigan (53rd) also competed in the meet.
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