On Saturday, Oct. 20, the New Haven men’s and women’s cross country teams traveled to Jamesville Beach Park, N.Y. to compete in the 2012 Northeast-10 Conference Championships.
The men’s team scored 11th place overall. The men ran an 8K along with 16 other teams in the conference. Freshman Sean Grady finished first for the Chargers in 60th place with a time of 27:39.
The next of the top five scorers were Senior Arnold Lane with a time of 29:11, freshman Chad Messam who followed with a time of 29:25, sophomore Ryan Parris with a time of 29:35, and finally Devin Rose with a time of 30:01.
Senior Marvin Azor, freshman Andrew Cunningham, Garret Davis, and Jason Fisher followed with the times of 30:22, 31:31, 34:18, and 35:55 respectively.
On the men’s side, Stonehill won the conference championship for the second straight year, as the top five Skyhawks all finished in the top 16.
For the women running a 5K, senior Dominique Stassulli came in first for the team. Stassulli placed 27th with a time of 19:50. Sophomore Danielle Sorrentino was close behind in 44th place with a time of 20:26.
The next three of the top five finishers were sophomore Alejandra Cortez, finishing with the time of 21:04, senior Bridget Faria with the time of 22:06, and sophomore Samantha Mathewson with the time of 22:11.
The other women, senior Tania Bernardino, sophomore Brianna-Marie Barron, and freshman Danielle Cuervo, followed, finishing with the times of 22:27, 24:48, and 32:23 respectively.
The women scored 12th place overall, and were one point away from 11th. The Stonehill Skyhawks also won the Northeast-10 Championship on the women’s side for the fourth consecutive season, with their five scoring runners all placing within the top 20.
Both the men and women Chargers wore pink socks and headbands in support of breast cancer awareness month, running for more than one cause.
Jamesville Beach Park was a tough course with a lot of rolling hills, and both rock areas and muddy grass areas. It was a slow course for all the runners, and the top cross country runners were about a minute behind their personal records. Spectators commented, “you can see it on their faces.” It was an important race with a big finish as the runners fought for themselves and their team.
The Chargers will end their championship season on Sunday, Nov. 4, at the NCAA Division II East Region Championship at Mine Falls Park in Nashua, N.H.
