Liberty Males’s XC Takes 2nd, Girls 4th at adidas XC Challenge

CARY, N.C. – Facing their hardest competitors of the younger season and a few scorching climate on the WakeMed Soccer Park Friday afternoon, each Liberty groups delivered with robust performances. The males’s squad took runner-up honors on the adidas XC Challenge, whereas the Lady Flames got here in fourth.

No. 19 North Carolina prevented the Liberty males’s group from defending its adidas XC Challenge title from 2024, posting an ideal rating of 15. But the Flames’ 67 factors outdistanced everybody else among the many 14-team area, together with host NC State. Liberty was paced by top-20 showings by Nicholas Kiprotich (13^th place, 6K time of 18:18.1), Edwin Kiprop (14^th, 18:20.3) and Andrew Schultz (19^th, 18:43.1).

Paced by Allie Zealand’s fifth-place particular person displaying (5K personal-best 16:36.1), the Lady Flames tallied 102 factors for fourth of 14 ladies’s squads. Liberty trailed solely No. 3 NC State (38 factors), No. 15 North Carolina (62) and South Carolina (63).

Race Reactions

• Kiprotich led the Flames on the adidas XC Challenge for the second yr in a row, following his sixth-place effort in 2024.
• Schultz improved from 34^th total (No. 8 Liberty runner) through the 2024 adidas XC Challenge as a freshman to 19^th total (No. 3 Liberty runner) on Friday.
• Zane Lindquist (57^th place to 44^th) and Ethan Stansbury (58^th place to 46^th) had been the Flames’ high movers through the race’s ultimate 2K.
• Freshman Caden Ellis celebrated his 18^th birthday on Friday by making his debut in a Flames uniform. He clocked 20:11.2 for 77^th place of 155 males’s finishers.
• Just as she did as a freshman on the 2024 adidas XC Challenge, Zealand paced the Lady Flames. She went from seventh place in 16:59.4 a yr in the past to fifth place in 16:36.1 Friday.
• Jessica Palisca continued a robust begin to her senior season, ending second to Zealand among the many Lady Flames for the second consecutive race. She slashed her 5K finest from 17:51.6 to 17:12.3 for 19^th within the race and 10^th in program historical past.
• Katie Sigerud (27^th place, 17:28.0) put her title into the sub-17:30 membership for the primary time, becoming a member of teammates Zealand, Palisca, Ava Gordon, Isabela Ross, Katrina Schlenker and Molly Lashley among the many 17 Lady Flames who’ve dipped beneath 17:30 in program historical past.
• Freshman Mackenzie Babcock (32^nd, 17:38.6) and Ryann Aycock (34^th, 17:39.5) rounded out the Lady Flames’ high 5, with Aycock setting a private finest in her hometown of Cary for the second straight season.
• Sophomores Rachel Hill (37^th, 17:49.7), Raini Mayo (52^nd, 18:05.2) and Anna Fletcher (59^th, 18:11.0) additionally achieved important cross nation 5K private bests on Friday.

Up Next
Liberty will break up its squad between two completely different meets on Oct. 3. A majority of the runners will compete within the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational in South Bend, Ind. The the rest of the Flames will head to Kernersville, N.C., for the Spartan Classic.