RedHawks take care of business at home

Miami's cross country runners ran further than their travel bus for Saturday's meet. The bus was not needed because the Red and White competed on their own home course for the RedHawk Rumble.

The RedHawks competed at home for the first time since 2014, dominating in both the women's six-kilometer race and men's eight-kilometer race. Both teams had eight runners in the top ten and scored 20 points -- the men winning by 33 and the women by 37.

Sophomore Sean Torpy continued his hot streak, coming away with his first collegiate victory. Last week's Mid-American Conference Runner of the Week, Torpy improved on his personal best from last week by running 25 minutes and five seconds.

The men's team strength was their pack presence, which was seen in groups throughout the race. There were only 17 seconds between third runner senior Matt Bromley and eighth runner sophomore Danny Reynolds.

"The plan was for the men's team to go out in the first 3K in 9:30," said Bromley. "Then take two minutes easy. From there work with your partner with two minutes hard and one minute easy until you believe that you could hold the hard effort until the finish."

The race was structured as a workout for both teams.

"It was a small race this weekend with only a few teams, so we took advantage of that and used it as a training run," said Coach Tom Chorny.

The women were led by both senior Maria Scavuzzo and sophomore Carly Davis, who finished first and second overall. This was Davis' highest placing in a cross country race as a RedHawk -- her first time in the top ten.

Graduate student Allison Klonne and seniors Elise Brady and Alesha Vovk rounded up the scoring five. Vovk finished fourth in 22 minutes and 36 seconds, while Brady and Klonne worked together to place sixth and seventh with times of 22 minutes and 53 seconds and 22 minutes and 56 seconds, respectively.

"We were paired up with someone of comparable speed and we went out at race pace slightly below for the first 2500 meters," Brady said of the women's race strategy. "[We] went into an interval segments of 2 minutes hard and 1 minute moderate."

Coach Chorny said the decision to make the race a workout was to have "a solid block of training" and to practice "certain aspects of a race or practicing certain strategies within a race."

The RedHawks compete again this Friday at Cedarville University for the All-Ohio Championships. The men's 8K is at 2:00 p.m., and the women's 6K is at 2:45 p.m.