Barnett, Asfaw win at Virginia Invitational

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

Freshman Mia Barnett and senior Rohann Asfaw each won their respective races to pace the Virginia men’s and women’s cross country teams at the Virginia Invitational at Panorama Farms.

The Cavalier women won their 5k race while the UVA men placed second to Navy in the 8k competition.

Barnett won in her collegiate debut with a time of 17:13.7 as Virginia took five of the top seven places to finish with 17 points. Junior Helena Lindsay was second at 17:25.2 while freshman Sophie Atkinson was fourth (17:38.2). Senior Gabby Karas and freshman Margot Appleton rounded out UVA’s scoring with sixth- (17:52.8) and seventh-place (17:54.4) finishes respectively. Navy finished second in the women’s race with 48 points.

Asfaw’s win was the fifth of his career and marked the fourth time he has finished first at Panorama Farms. He managed to overtake Navy senior Gregory Mathias in the final 200 meters and sprinted past him to cross the finish line in a course record time of 24:14.7. Mathias was second at 24:19.2

Navy had four finishers in the top 10 to edge UVA 31-38 in the team scoring. Virginia junior Johnny Rogers was the team’s second finisher at 24:46.2 to place sixth. Sophomore Jacob Hunter was eighth at 24:55.9, sophomore Kevin Carlson was 11th at 24:59.0 and Ka’eo Kruse was 12th at 24:59.3 to round out the team’s top five finishers.

“It was a good opener,” said Vin Lananna, Virginia’s director of track and field and cross country. “Mia Barnett, as a first year, winning the race is a big deal for her and our women overall had a pretty dominant performance. As a team, they did really well. It was great to see all of our first years do such a great job.

“On the men’s side, you can’t be anything but excited for Rohann. That was a hard race. Give credit to Navy. They ran really tough. Once we put all of our first years into the lineup I think we’ll be pretty good this year.”

The Cavaliers return to competition on Oct. 1 when they race at the Notre Dame Invitational.