Worcester State College Cross Country Recap

Alliance Championship Cross Country Meet

10/27/07

MEN

The Worcester State College men’s cross country team continued their highly successful season with another outstanding performance at the Alliance Conference Championships, a meet with the combined MASCAC and Little East conferences. After finishing second at last week’s MASCAC Championships, the Lancer’s finished fourth among the 14 schools represented at this highly competitive event. This is the best finish ever for the college at this competition, placing behind perennial powers Southern Maine and Keene State from the Little East and again just missing out on catching Westfield State by a six point margin.  The Lancers had another week of great individual performances as well.  MASCAC Champion and junior Forest Wilber was third overall to lead the Worcester State squad. Sophomore Adam Malek broke into the top twenty in 18^th place with a personal best time on this course. Junior Rob Lind, still recovering after having backed off his training for a couple of weeks, was the third Lancer to finish landing 25^th place in the scoring. Lind’s time (26:42) was just off his time on the course earlier in the season despite the “down time”.  Senior Justin Snair, who continues to improve with each race, met his goal, running 27:32 to finish 47^th overall and run his fastest race of the season. Junior Chris Mancuso rounded out the top five with a time of 28:01 and a 53^rd place finish overall.  Not too far behind were teammates freshmen Steve Gemme (66^th) and junior Andrew Rossi(69^th). Both Mancuso and Rossi ran personal bests on the course while Gemme was just off his time from earlier in the season. Others who saw significant improvement this week and personal best on the course were freshman Robert Stahelski, sophomores Norman Everett and Joe Bourdelais, and newcomer Aun Ho. The team now points to the final competition of the season at the NCAA Regional Qualifier on November 10^th at Connecticut College. Hopes are high, for both individual accomplishments as well as an overall top level team finish to end the season unprecedented in the program’s existence.

WOMEN
 

Worcester States Women’s Cross Country team had a very impressive showing at the New England Alliance Championship. The team finished 6^th of 14 teams with two members of the team earning All Conference Status. The meet was hosted by Umass Dartmouth. The Lancers were lead by Senior Captain Lindsey Shields and sophomore Kara Antrim. Both Shields and Antrim worked together to place 16^th and 17^th to earn All Conference. Both runners ran sub 21 minutes over a 3.1-mile race. The rest of the Lancers ran impressive; each member improved their times on this course, which was run earlier in the season. Junior Jillian Parzych finished 3^rd for the lancers posting her first sub 22 minute race. Three other lancers finished with sub 22 minutes races. Senior Sally Geary, Junior Becky Kniss, and Freshman Angela Roux. Sophomore Adrienne Fisher and Freshman Rachel Sullivan finished the race in less than 23 minutes, which was an improvement for both of them. The team looks for more improvements at the NCAA Regional meet to be held on November 10^th at Connecticut College.