IUP seniors Nicole Blaesser and Jorge Medina both placed in the top five overall to lead their team’s performance at the Penn State Cross Country Invitational on Saturday in State College.

Blaesser paced the IUP women with a fifth place finish and first among Division II runners.  She had a time of 21:31 on the 6K course to help IUP take fifth of 16 in the team standings.

Medina was fourth in the men’s 5.2 mile race, posting a time of 25:48.  He was second only to individual winner Ryan Blood of Lock Haven among Division II entries.  The IUP men finished 11^th of 17 teams.

Blaesser was followed by Erica Hoffman (33^rd, 22:59), Maureen Newell (34^th, 23:05), Stacie Stockard (45^th, 23:25) and Laura Blaesser (48^th, 23:31).  Also scoring for the men were Eric Kruttschnitt (49^th, 27:19), Nate Shelly (74^th, 28:03), Matt Gaudet (79^th, 28:19) and Josh Lafleur (101^st, 29:19).

The women, ranked 11^th in the nation, had a total of 165 points and trailed only Syracuse (44), Penn State (64), Guelph, a Canadian school (76) and West Virginia (132).  The nearest PSAC team was Slippery Rock, which finished ninth.

The men were able to beat out PSAC rivals Bloomsburg and Slippery Rock in the team standings.

IUP competes again on Saturday at the Slippery Rock Invitational. 

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