Villanova’s men’s and women’s cross country teams competed separately this weekend. The women’s team headed up the coast to Franklin, MA for the Battle in Beantown hosted by Boston College. The men’s team stayed local for the Paul Short Run in Bethlehem, Pa., hosted by Lehigh.

The women’s team placed fourth out of 16 total groups. It was a down-to-the-wire race where the second through seventh-place teams were only separated by 40 points. It was an impressive effort as the ‘Cats placed above Princeton, ranked seventh in the Mid-Atlantic Region by the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. The performance was enough for the ‘Cats to jump up a spot in the Mid-Atlantic Region, from sixth to fifth. Harvard won the meet with 61 points, while the ‘Cats’ 118 was good for fourth.

The outstanding performance from the ‘Cats came from junior Sadie Sigfstead. She was the individual champion at the Main Line Invitational last week, setting the course record and earning Big East Female Athlete of the Week honors. Her talents carried over to Beantown. Sigfstead placed second out of 160 runners on the course. She clocked a time of 17:04.9, four seconds behind the first-place finisher, Harvard junior Maia Ramsden. After an injury forced Sigfstead to redshirt her sophomore year, she has had a quick start to her junior year.

“[Sigfstead] was a top runner her freshman year,” head coach Gina Procaccio said. “She was still trying to learn how to compete at the collegiate level. Coming into her sophomore season she was banged up and we decided it was best for her to redshirt… after a healthy summer she believes she is at the top.”

The rest of the team performed well, in addition to Sigfstead. Junior Emma McGill finished fifth overall at the meet with a time of 17:10.6. Junior Margaret Carroll came in 20th overall in 17:42.4, followed by junior Emily Robinson, who was 31st at 17:49.5, and freshman Tilly O’Connor came in 66th with a time of 18:24.5. Sophomore Kinsey Pogue and senior Elizabeth Vaughn rounded out the Wildcats lineup with times of 18:33.7 and 18:27.3, respectively.

The NCAA standard for women’s races is 6000m races. For the women, Beantown was the first six-kilometer race the ‘Cats competed in this season. This sets them up for the rest of their season with every course on their remaining schedule being 6000m.

The women will start to prepare for their next meet, the XC-23 Pre-Nationals in Charlottesville, VA. That meet will take place on Saturday, Oct. 14.

The men raced unattached at the Paul Short Run.

Villanova’s men’s team raced individually, meaning its runners did not race for Villanova but rather unattached from the University on their own. Only one runner ran for Villanova, graduate Henry Myers. Myers was coming off what seemed to be a strained meniscus he suffered about two weeks ago.

“It was something the trainers monitored and watched for about a week,” head coach Marcus O’Sullivan said. “Then, he was cleared to go by the staff and was ready to race.”

Myers, while being Villanova’s sole runner, posted a time of 24:34.5 in the 8000m race. It was good enough for him to place sixth out of 520 runners. As for the other Villanova runners who participated they ran unattached from their school name. This is due to them being redshirted, as almost all freshmen men who run cross country at Villanova are. Running unattached from the school allows them to stay active in their sport while being redshirted. Those five freshmen were Kai Mitchell-Reiss (19th-25:08.1), Nick Sullivan (28th-25:19.3), George Andrus (56th25:43.8), CJ Sullivan (115th-26:23.3) and Brian Theobald (210th-27:12.1). Transfer graduate student, Jamie Moreland, suffered an ankle sprain during the race and did not finish.

The team now prepares for the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational in Madison, WI on Friday, Oct. 13.