Tri State @ CCRI 9/30/06

Men:  Team finished 4th of 11

Women:  Team finished 7^th of 9
 

The Worcester State Men’s Cross Country team ran one of the best team races in recent times at the Tri States Championships at CCRI.  The team finished fourth, just six points from winning a third place team award and plaque at the meet. The Lancers did, however, place one in the top five and two in the top ten. Sophomore Rob Lind (Worcester, MA-Doherty HS) continues to run among the leaders each week, running a time of 27:14.47 to finish fifth overall. Right behind Lind was freshman teammate Adam Malek( Worcester, MA-Burncoat HS) in seventh place overall running a time of 27:45.31 over the 8K course.  Sophomore tandem Andrew Rossi (Shrewsbury, MA) and Chris Mancuso (Rowley MA) finished 23^rd and 25^th respectively just eleven seconds apart with times of 29:21.36 and 29:32.50 over the distance. Rounding out the top five for the Lancers was freshman Joe Bourdelais (Marlboro, MA) with a time of 34:38.41 for 79^th place overall.  In addition, good efforts were turned in by sophomore Derek Willand (35:00.90 and Norman Everett (36:51.53) who had their best race to date (35:00.90) and Matt Toloczko (35:47.17), who gets stronger weekly.  The test of the team over the next few weeks will be to close the gap after the top four. With the second group, moving up steadily that is certain to happen, though the gap is a concern as the races take on added importance. Regardless, the present Lancers team has shown itself to be one of the strongest in recent years.

Women:  7^th of 9

The Worcester State Women’s Cross Country team ran well this week with almost everyone running their best time so far this season over a 5K course.  Leading the way this week was Lindsay Shields (Millbury, MA), who has been the WSC frontrunner in three of the four races run this season.  She just missed out on individual honors for the second week in a row, finishing 16^th overall with a time of 21:19.42 over the course.  Senior captain Jenelle Cunningham had her best outing of the season as she continues to regain her form from last year. Cunningham improved this week almost a minute and a half to improve to 22:19.56 and finish 27^th overall.  Freshman Kara Antrim, despite having to run at less than 100% this week, was the third Lady Lancer in 23:38.14 over the terrain.  Rounding out the top five were freshman Megan Tuite (Marlboro, MA) and sophomore Jill Parzych (Sturbridge,MA).  Tuite ran her strongest race of the season in 24:41.95 for 65^th place while Parzych ran just her second ever cross country race improving two minutes over last week to finish in 25:48.20 for 78^th place.