Complete Results
CLEVELAND, Ohio – The nationally-ranked No. 3 Gators opened the season with a sensational start at the Bill Sudeck Classic hosted by Case Western Reserve University on Saturday. Paced by a sweep of the top three places in the individual standings, Allegheny easily powered to a first-place finish in the six-team competition.
The conditions were miserable for an early September meet as heavy rains and strong winds muddied the course. Although the conditions were far from ideal, the Gators pack-ran their way to a near-perfect score. After yielding the top overall finish to unattached competitor Reza Mohammadopour, junior Chris Marker broke the tape as the first collegiate finisher. Marker completed the 6000-meter circuit in 19:26.28, three seconds ahead of senior Jeramie Parker (19:29.14), and four steps ahead of junior Patrick McLaughlin (19:30.45).
Runner-up finisher Case Western Reserve and Baldwin-Wallace placed a runner in the next two spots, before the Gators capped their own team scoring with a sixth-place effort by senior Zac Ross (19:40.63) and a seventh-place finish from Mike Vlah (19:48.09).
Allegheny finished the morning with 19 points, while Case, who entered the season ranked sixth in the Great Lakes region, closed with 44 points. Baldwin-Wallace was third with a score of 83, and John Carroll (107), Notre Dame of Ohio (159), and Adrian (169) rounded out the team results.
“The guys raced conservatively for the first few miles,” noted head coach Brent Wilkerson. “I thought we executed our game plan well, especially in light of the fact that the weather was poor, we were coming off our highest mileage week, and we had a tough mid-week workout.”
The Gators had a sizeable break after their top five, with Ryan Sullivan finishing 11th in 19:58.49 and Andrew Mahone crossing as the team’s seventh man with a 16th-place time of 20:05.36. A total of 97 runners competed in the Classic.