The Westmoreland County Community College cross country team is headed south to the National Junior College Athletic Association Division III meet.
For a change this year, it’s the WCCC men’s team, not the women, taking center stage Saturday at Georgia Military College in Milledgeville, 80 miles southeast of Atlanta.
“The women’s team finished third in the country last year,” WCCC coach Patrick Comer said. “The guys have done well, but the ladies’ team always has been bigger with more opportunities. This is the first time in my 11 years here that the men’s team has a bigger roster. Normally, our strength has been on the women’s side.”
Six runners make up what Comer figures to be a formidable men’s lineup for the Wolfpack, led by freshman Dante Frescura, a former Latrobe runner, who enters the national meet having won the NJCAA Region 20 and Western Pennsylvania Collegiate Conference titles Oct. 30.
“He had a very solid year,” Comer said.
Among Frescura’s other victories is a winning time at the season-opening WCCC Wolfpack Invitational on Sept. 3.
Two other WCCC runners — freshman Micah Conroy (Latrobe) and freshman Ben Davis (Mt. Pleasant) — are from WPIAL schools. The team’s remaining runners are sophomore Nathan Miller and freshmen Jared Bowman and Peyton Hause.
The women’s team, which has boasted the highest cumulative GPA among NJCAA Division III schools in the past two years, includes just three runners, two of whom are WPIAL products.
Sophomore Hannah Klingensmith (Norwin) and freshman Molleigh Henderson (Ligonier Valley) are joined by freshman Anna Rubino, who recently earned All-Region 20 honors.
In addition to the men’s team, Rubino and Henderson will represent WCCC at the national meet.
“This is our seventh straight year going to nationals,” Comer said. “We’ve gotten to the point where we expect it. As long as we’ve got the horses to compete, we’ve always got a chance. Our name is on the board with the nationally known teams.”
The WCCC men’s team has shown flashes of potential this year for a spot among the nation’s elite, including a second-place finish at the Region 20 Championships at Anne Arundel (Md.).
“A very solid group,” Comer said. “We’ve been nationally ranked all year. These guys come in and work really hard. It’s an interesting group.”
Conroy was a soccer player at Latrobe and did not run cross country. He underwent successful ACL and MCL surgeries in December and has relied on running for rehabilitation.
Davis was an 800-meter runner in track and field at Mt. Pleasant. Like Conroy, he hadn’t participated in cross country until this year.
“He’s come a long, long way,” Comer said. “Running five miles is a big change from running 800 meters, but he’s definitely taken to the challenge.”
Comer said he would expect his team to finish in the Nos. 10-15 range because, “It’s a very flat course. I expect some nice times, especially with us being used to running around Western Pennsylvania’s hilly terrain.”
For WCCC to do well at the national meet, Comer said his runners need to stay connected.
“We have a good group, a close group,” he said. “You want to run in a nice, tight pack. You want to all come in at around the same time. Dante leads the way and the other guys follow.”
Frescura takes the expectations from his coach and teammates, shall we say, “in stride?”
As a senior at Latrobe, he finished fourth at the Westmoreland County championships and followed it up with a personal-best 5K time of 16 minutes, 31 seconds at the WPIAL championships.
He ran to a 59th-place finish at the PIAA Class 3A meet.
Frescura also participated in track and field and volleyball at Latrobe.
“I really didn’t go to WCCC to run, specifically,” he said. “I just figured I’d do two years of college for now, so I really wasn’t basing my college choice off running. But I work hard at everything I do and I’m proud to say that.”