Virginia Beach, Va. – Penn State Greater Allegheny Cross Country Runner Fernando Leira (Madrid, Spain/Great Mills (md.)) will get a chance to represent PSUGA at the 2017 United States Collegiate Athletic Association National Championships on Friday in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
The 1st Team-All PSUAC runner has had a great season so far and is coming off of a 7th place overall finish at the PSUAC Championships where he had a time of 32:17. Leira has kept improving with every outing this season including picking up his top time at the Frostburg State Invitaional on September 30th when he placed 19th overall with a time of 31:40 over the 8K course. Leira has finished in at least the top 20 in every race that he has competed in this season and his goal all season long was to be ready for the championships.
He will be running with runners from 29 different teams across the country including some Penn State University Athletic Conference foes in PSU-Brandywine, PSU-Fayette, PSU-Schuylkill, PSU-Mont Alto, PSU-Worthington Scranton, and PSU-DuBois. The course is an 8K track consisting of three loops around the park located behind the Virginia Beach Field House.
Leira is coming into this race with a lot of confidence off of his seventh place PSUAC Championship finish and is looking to continue that success on the national scale. In last season’s USCAA National Championships, former PSUGA runner Ellis Massiah finished 64th overall out of 200 runners with a time of 29:24.
The USCAA National Championships begin tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. as Leira looks to represent PSUGA in style.