UMass-Dartmouth Invitational 9/16/06

Men:  Team finished 19^th of 29

Women:  Team finished 26^th of 33

The Worcester State Men’s and women’s cross country teams competed at the UMass Dartmouth Cross Country Invitational on Saturday, September 16, 2006.  Both teams took away some valuable experience in racing during this young season. Besides the individual performances, Worcester State was able to test themselves against a number of teams they will see later in the season in key contests. For the men, the entire team ran aggressively over the first three miles and paid the price over the final two miles. Both Rob Lind and Adam Malek went out with the lead pack before falling of pace as the race progressed. Lind, however, still ran close to his best time for five miles last season. Malek, ran just his second five mile race ever.  The rest of the squad also started well before fading. While the end result was not quite what the Lancers were hoping for, important adjustments to racing tactics should have been learned that will help the team as the season progresses. The team, with the exception of Lind, is also still adjusting to the five mile distance and everyone is coming off an intense week of workouts. Sophomore Chris Mancuso continues to improve running a solid race while sophomore Andrew Rossi was close behind.  Freshman Joe Bourdelais and sophomore Derrick Willand continue to gain experience and confidence with each race.  For the women, freshman Kara Antrim started fast, struggled some in the middle of the race before finishing strong.  Last weeks individual winner at Fitchburg, junior Lindsay Shields continues to get stonger, though running a conservative race this week. Senior captain, Jenelle Cunningham also gets stronger each week and raced well over the second half of the course today.  Junior Sally Geary was just a short distance behind running consistently throughout.  Freshman Megan Tuite rounded out the Lancer five with an improved performance from last week.  The women were all able to see faster times than in their first race in the previous week. Next week both squads will race at the Worcester City Meet to be held at Institute Park, Saturday morning, September 23, 2006