ERIE, Pa. – Jacob Parsons (Titusville, PA/Maplewood) led the Penn State Behrend men's cross country team to their fifth straight and ninth overall Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) Championship Saturday with a first-place finish and score of 19.
As depth has been a key to success for the squad all year, today was no different. Seven of the Lions' runners finished in the Top 15 awarding them All-Conference honors.
Pasons finished with a time of 27:08.3 which was good enough for a second place overall finish, only behind Penn State Altoona freshman Brad Foust. Despite finishing second, Parsons recorded the top scoring time due to Penn State Altoona scoring less than five runners.
Finishing just behind Parsons among Behrend's runners was Devin Beggs (Franklin, PA/Franklin), Cody Cornell (Conneaut Lake, PA/Conneaut Lake), Ian Griffith (Murrysville, PA/Franklin Regional) and Josh Natalie (Erie, PA/Collegiate Academy-Strong Vincent).
Those four runners captured fourth through seventh place, respectively, only split by 30 seconds. They ran side-by-side throughout the race and pushed each other to capture the AMCC title. Beggs, who was the individual champions in last year's championship, ran a time of 27:25.6.
Cornell crossed the finish line six seconds behind Beggs with a time of 27:31.8. Griffith followed 13 seconds later with a time of 27:44.4 while Natalie finished the Lions' scoring with a seventh-place finish and time of 27:51.2.
Along with those five runners, last year's Rookie of the year Dylan Buffington (Brookville, PA/Brookville) as well as Aaron Peters (Waterford, PA/Fort LeBoeuf) finished in the Top 15 to qualify themselves for the All-Conference team. Buffington finished in 11th while Peters crossed the finish line in 14th.
Next up for Behrend are the NCAA Regionals on November 14. They will be held in Carlisle, PA.
