Results  |  Photo courtesy of Carnegie Mellon University

PITTSBURGH, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University men's cross country team opened the 2023 season with a fourth-place finish at the Panther Opener hosted by the University of Pittsburgh Friday morning at Schenley Park.
 
The Division I hosts from the University of Pittsburgh ran away with the team win with a final score of 17 points after placing all five scorers in the top six. Division III power Carnegie Mellon took second with 54 points, followed by Division II Atlantic Region rival Davis & Elkins in third with 72 points. The Rock were fourth with 114 points and West Virginia Wesleyan finished fifth with 142 points.
 
A total of 70 runners finished the 5,000-meter course, which was 3,000 meters short of the race distance The Rock will run for the rest of the regular season.
 
Slippery Rock was paced by Troy Hart in 10th place with a  time of 14:40, which was just 20 seconds off the race winner from Pitt.
 
Devon Navaroli was the second SRU finisher in 28th place in 15:15. Ethan Brentham followed in 30th place in 15:16. Michael Novak was 47th in 15:49 and John Juszynski rounded out the scorers in 50th place in 16:04.
 
Tucker Davis was 53rd in 16:07 and Dylan Ribelin was 57th in 16:26 to cap the top seven finishers.
 
Slippery Rock was competing without two graduate students in Joseph Cintavey and Ryan Corbitt, who both missed the competition to attend their graduate school lab courses. Cintavey is a projected scorer and was an All-Conference runner at Shippensburg last fall.
 
The Rock will take next weekend off before returning to action Sept. 16 at the Colonial Invitational hosted by Robert Morris University.
 
SRU RESULTS – PANTHER OPENER
10. Troy Hart – 14:40
28. Devon Navaroli – 15:15
30. Ethan Brentham – 15:16
47. Michael Novak – 15:49
50. John Juszynski – 16:04
53. Tucker Davis – 16:07
57. Dylan Ribelin – 16:26
60. Ryan Czechowski – 16:28
61. Noah Johnson – 16:29
62. Harrison Repko – 16:29
63. Anthony Robare – 16:36
65. Brady Hoffman – 16:47



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