TRAFFORD, Pa. (pacathletics.org) - The 2024 Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) Cross Country Championships are set to be held at the Lawrence County Fairgrounds on Saturday, Nov. 2nd, with Geneva, Grove City and Westminster Colleges serving as hosts.

The women's six-kilometer (6K) race will start at 11 a.m., with the men's eight-kilometer (8K) race to follow at noon. A brief awards ceremony will take place after the conclusion of the men's race. 

This year’s championship race will be the 67th for the men, while the women will be competing in the conference's 41st championship race.

This is the first time the PAC Cross Country Championships will be held at the Lawrence County Fairgrounds course, which has previously served as an NCAA Regional site. 

The top seven finishers in both the men’s and women’s races receive All-PAC First Team recognition, while runners finishing eighth through 14th will earn All-PAC Second Team honors. Runners finishing 15th through 21st receive All-PAC Honorable Mention recognition. The league will also recognize its PAC Runners of the Year, PAC Newcomers of the Year and PAC Coaches of the Year, along with the PAC Sportsmanship Teams.  

Wolf Creek Race Management (Mars, Pa.) will be on-site to provide event management and timing services for the two championship races. 

The 10 Division III regional championships are scheduled for Saturday, November 16. Bethany, Chatham, Geneva, Grove City, Saint Vincent, Thiel, W&J, Waynesburg and Westminster will compete in the Mid-Atlantic region, while Allegheny and Franciscan will compete in the Great Lakes region. The Division III Mid-Atlantic Championships will be held at Lock Haven University's West Branch Cross Country Course, while the Division III Great Lakes Championships will be held in Shelbyville, Indiana at Blue River Park. 

The 2025 Division III Championships are scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 23 at Lavern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course at the Wabash Valley Family Sports Center in Terre Haute, Indiana. 

Women
Led by five runners who placed in the top 19, Grove City College won the 2023 PAC Women's Cross Country Championship, the first PAC crown since 2015 for the Wolverines, who have now captured a PAC-best 28 conference titles in the 40 years the women's cross country championships have been held. 

Grove City compiled 61 points to edge 2022 PAC champion Allegheny College, who scored 67 points to place second. Earning third place was Geneva College with 82 points, followed closely by Washington & Jefferson College in fourth place with 85. Taking fifth was Saint Vincent College with 109 points, followed by Franciscan University in sixth (118), Waynesburg University in seventh (193), Chatham University in eighth (258), Westminster College in ninth (259), Thiel College in 10th (299) and Bethany College in 11th (333).

A deep and balanced field of women's runners is highlighted by W&J junior Claire Anderson (Jamestown, Pa./Jamestown). She was the first to the championship finish line last season in a time of 21:51.02 to earn PAC Runner of the Year. In the process, she became the first President to win Female Runner of the Year since Kristen Galligan in 2021. Also an All-Region performer and NCAA Championships qualifier last year, Anderson's success has carried over to this season, with three PAC Runner of the Week awards to her credit.

A pair of Geneva runners claimed the next two spots and earned First Team All-PAC last year, including junior Carmen Medvit (New Castle, Pa./Shenango), who was the runner up, while her junior teammate Hailey Carroll (Bremerton, Wash./Central Kitsap) took third place. Both Medvit and Carroll would go on to qualify for the 2023 NCAA Championships along with Anderson and will be running Saturday.

The top runner in Grove City's 2023 championship performance was senior Lydia Bennett (Bethel, Maine/Gould Academy), who earned fourth place overall to garner First Team All-PAC honors. She'll try to lead the Wolverines to a repeat title, as will senior Grace Smith (Dover, Ohio/Dover). A first-year cross country runner, Smith has had an outstanding fall with three PAC weekly awards, including one Runner of the Week and two Newcomer honors.

Franciscan is expected to mount a challenge, as the Barons will be led by a pair of major conference award winners. Sophomore Lauren Dosch (Grand Forks, N.D./Red River) was the highest placing first-year runner last season with her sixth place finish to earn PAC Newcomer of the Year in addition to First Team All-PAC, becoming the first Franciscan runner to receive that newcomer honor. The 2022 PAC Runner of the Year is back for Franciscan as well in senior Claire Walters (Manlius, N.Y./Fayetteville-Manlius), who was also an All-American that season before not competing in 2023.

A first-year runner who has had an excellent fall is Saint Vincent freshman Grace Neubert (Saint Marys, Pa./Elk County Catholic). She has run to five conference awards through the season, including two Runner of the Week laurels and three Newcomer of the Week recognitions. One of her Runner of the Week awards came when she finished first out of 92 runners at the PAC Preview meet at Saturday's Championship site back on Sept. 7th, covering the course in  22:32 to finish 50 seconds ahead of the runner-up.

In the conference's preseason poll released in August, Grove City was tabbed as the favorite to repeat as women's team champion this year. 

Men
The 2023 PAC Men's Championships featured Saint Vincent, aided by five all-conference runners, totaling 56 points to win its ninth overall PAC Men's Cross Country Championship 

The Bearcats' strong team effort helped them outdistance second-place W&J, who finished with 71 points. Finishing third was Allegheny with 76 points, while Grove City College was fourth with 99 points. They were followed in fifth place by Geneva (102), Waynesburg in sixth (155), Franciscan in seventh (165), Thiel in eighth (241), Westminster in ninth (268) and Chatham in 10th (286). Bethany only had individuals compete at the Championships.

Earning PAC Coach of the Year was Saint Vincent's Kevin Wanichko, who was voted to the honor for the first time in his career and was the first Saint Vincent coach to receive the award since Dr. Andrew Herr in 2016. 

Among the top runners in the men's field include Geneva senior Kevin Arseneaux (Yarmouth Port, Mass./Dennis-Yarmouth Regional), the 2023 PAC Runner of the Year. Arseneaux broke the tape at PAC Championships by finishing first overall in the 114-runner field with a time of 25:52.44 to become the first Golden Tornado to capture the PAC individual championship in cross country.

The second place finisher at PAC Championships in 2023 was W&J sophomore Dominic Flitcraft (Aliquipa, Pa./Hopewell), who earned First Team All-PAC and conference Newcomer of the Year as the highest-placing freshman. He was just the second President to earn the top newcomer honor in the conference (Paul Collier, 2019). Flitcraft has had a strong second season to date, earning a pair of PAC Runner of the Week honors so far.

Saint Vincent's championship efforts a year ago were led by graduate student Tim Patterson (Butler, Pa. /Butler), who took third overall at the PAC meet last year and he went on to qualify for NCAA Championships, the first SVC runner to qualify for nationals since 2013, after placing ninth at the Mid-Atlantic Regional. Like Flitcraft, Patterson has posted a strong 2024 campaign with two PAC Runner of the Week awards, one coming after he won the PAC Preview at the Fairgrounds Sept. 7th, crossing in 25:58.2 to edge Arseneaux by one second.

Another former Runner of the Year who will be on the course Saturday is Franciscan graduate student Miguel Daez (Sterling, Va./Holy Family Homeschool). A three-time First Team All-PAC runner, Daez was the 2022 Runner of the Year in the conference and is back after not competing in 2023.

Following their PAC Championship last year, Saint Vincent was picked as the favorite to win the men's team championship by the PAC coaches in the August preseason poll.