As junior Emil Heineking charged toward the finish line, having left the rest of the field in his dust, he raised his fist in celebration of what would be his and his team's third straight first-place victory.
The No. 15 Virginia men's team finished 11 points ahead of No. 11 Syracuse at the Panorama Farms Invitational Friday afternoon. Eight other teams, including four ranked ones, finished behind the Cavaliers. Meanwhile, the No. 10 women's team also saw success, coming in second behind No. 2 Villanova.
"I'm really proud of both of our teams," Virginia coach Jason Vigilante said. "For us to compete as well as we did ... it's a treat ... I'm delighted that we competed as hard as we did."
The race's competitive nature was apparent from the finishers' times. The top four runners for the women's 6K - all of whom were from Villanova - crossed the gates ahead of the course record of 20:23.5. The first Virginia finisher, junior transfer Catherine White, crossed the line in fifth with a time of 20:28.27.
"It was pretty packed up through the 5K, [then] a gap formed," White said, alluding to the 8-second margin between her and the fourth-place finisher. "Physically, I felt really fit and I felt good. I just didn't feel on top of my game and sharp."
Sophomore Morgane Gay finished behind White in sixth. Coming in third and fourth for Virginia and 12th and 13th overall, respectively, were senior Lauretta Dezubay and junior Stephanie Garcia. Rounding out Virginia's top five was freshman Barbara Strehler, who finished 20th overall.
"I think we are fine," Vigilante said. "Everybody after the race said they felt good physically ... I think in two weeks, when we get on the line for ACCs, we'll be perfectly fine."
The men's 8K race saw seven runners finish ahead of the course record of 23:52.5. Heineking, who crossed 20 seconds ahead of the second place finisher, shattered the previous course record by 36 seconds with a time of 23:16.19.
"Today's races were just so fast," Vigilante said. "For Emil to lead the way and win by 20 seconds - I'm really in awe of his performance."
Senior Graham Tribble and junior Ryan Collins finished second and third for Virginia with times of 23:43.63 and 23:45.67, respectively. In fourth and fifth for Virginia were senior Trey Miller and sophomore Sintayehu Taye.
Heineking, however, did not lead by such a wide margin throughout the entire race. The men's race started clumped together for the most part, and even at the 2K mark, Heineking - who was already ahead - was closely followed by a pack of runners that included Collins and Tribble. The Syracuse team had managed to stay together to that point and were pacing each other well until the 5K mark, where Heineking pulled out in front enough to create a noticeable lead between him and the rest of the field.
"Originally, I was supposed to go out a little more conservative through 5K, but a guy from Tennessee took out the race a little faster than I thought it was going to go, then I just kept going," he said.
As Heineking kept going, Tribble and Collins hung tough as they crossed the 5K mark, allowing only one other runner to slip between Heineking and them.
Syracuse finished in a pack, turning in fifth, seventh, eighth, 10th and 11th place finishes. The Virginia team arrived at the gates in a more sporadic manner - Miller finished among the pack of Orange harriers in 9th overall and Taye fell off his pace toward the end, taking 13th - but the squad's top three finishers allowed it to take the overall victory.
"We can definitely pack it up a little more," Heineking said. "It's going to be important that our 4-5-6-7 guy run a little bit close together in the next three races."
Foremost among the Cavaliers' upcoming races are the ACC Championships, which will take place in only two weeks.
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