Worcester City Meet 9/23/06

Men:  Team finished 3rd of 5

Women:  Team finished 4^th of 4

The Worcester State men’s and women’s cross country teams made significant progress this week while competing in the Worcester City Championships held at Institute Park in Worcester, MA.   For the men, Local standouts, Rob Lind (Doherty HS) and Adam Malek (Burncoat HS) led the Lancers to a third place finish in the highly competitive contest.  Lind, a sophomore, finished second after battling over the much of the course with WPI’s Alex White. Meanwhile Malek, a freshman, was locked in a similar battle before finishing 4^th overall in the competition with these two front runners leading the way, the rest of the squad stepped up and also ran aggressive and strong races. Sophomore Andrew Rossi ( Shrewsbury, MA) had his best outing of the year, just missing breaking into the “28 minute” club this week, finishing in 29:12 for 19^th place overall. Teammate Chris Mancuso was not far behind in 22^nd place at 29:42 for the 8K distance.  Freshman, Joe Bourdelais (St Johns HS) also had his best race running strong over the first three miles before fading some toward the finish. Finishing 5^th for the team in 51^st place, helped secure the third place team standings for the men. Newcomer, freshman Matt Toloczko was solid in his first collegiate race while sophomore Derrick Willand and freshman Norman Everett continue to improve every time they race.

For the women, junior Lindsay Shields continues to work and regain her top level form as the season progresses.  Shields led the Lady Lancers with a 12^th place finish and a time of 21:30 over the 5K course as her time drop lower each week. Freshman Kara Antrim, still adjusting to collegiate racing, was the second WSC women to finish doing so in 21^st place overall. Senior captain Jenelle Cunningham ran her best race of the season finishing in 30^th place with her best time this fall. Freshman Megan Tuite improved over a minute and a half from her time last week to finish 36th overall. Sophomore Jilian Parzych ran her first cross country race ever to contribute to the women’s team effort.