The UNC men’s cross country team claimed the ACC championship Friday morning in Tallahassee. It’s the program’s 10th overall and first in 38 years.

Junior Parker Wolfe led the winning effort, becoming the first Tar Heel since 1997 and the 15th overall to win the ACC individual title. He finished with a time of 23:03.01 in the 8K race, more than five seconds ahead of second place. Alex Phillip, Ethan Strand and Jake Gebhardt each also finished in the Top 10.

“All that was going through my mind was pump the arms, pump the legs and everything else will take care of itself,” Wolfe said. “The goal from the beginning was work together and without [my teammates] it would’ve been a lot tougher of a race.

“It makes a huge difference knowing that even if I’m not having the best day, they are going to back me up for that team title.”

Syracuse, Virginia, Notre Dame and Florida State rounded out the Top 5.

On the women’s side, the Tar Heels finished in fifth place on the team leaderboard. Fatima Alanis was Carolina’s highest finisher in the 6K race with a time of 20:16.9. Defending conference and national champion NC State once again won the conference title, with Notre Dame in second, Virginia in third and Syracuse in fourth.

The cross country teams will compete in the Hokie Open in Blacksburg on November 3 before moving on to the NCAA Southeast Regional Championships in Spartanburg, S.C. on November 10.

 

Featured image via UNC Athletic Communications/Jeffrey A. Camarati

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