BOSTON-- The America East Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Championship will be held at University at Albany on Saturday (November 1). It will mark the first time that the conference’s premier meet is held at Albany. The women compete on a 5,000-meter course at 12 noon while the men run 8,000 meters starting at 1 p.m.
The conference has annually sponsored a Men’s Cross Country Championship since 1988 while the first Women’s Championship was held in 1989.
Boston University has won 12 of the previous 14 women’s championships, including seven-straight. University of Vermont (1989) is the only school from the present membership to have also won a women’s title. Defending men's champion University of New Hampshire has won four of the last five men's meets. Boston University has won 10 of the previous 15 men’s championships with Northeastern University (1988) winning the other.
Boston University senior Jochen Dieckfoss covered the 8K course at Franklin Park in Boston, Mass. last year in a time of 23:45 to capture his third individual title in as many years. Dieckfoss will look to capture his fourth title this year, which would mark just the second time in America East history that such a feat has been accomplished. Dieckfoss and former Terrier Karl Rasmussen, who won four individual titles, are the only multiple-time individual winners on the men’s side. Vermont junior Michele Palmer, who has finished second each of the last two years, is the top returning runner on the women's side.
Steve Meinelt, Tony Truax and Peter Mallet, who finished third, fourth and fifth respectively, will look to lead the New Hampshire men to their fifth America East championship. Finishing 42 points ahead of second place Boston University, Wildcat runners captured four of the top 10 individual places.
The Boston University women return four runners from last year’s championship team, including Dina Mijuskovic and Jessica Iannacci who finished fifth and sixth respectively. The Terriers will also bring to the table freshmen Marissa Ryan and Abbey Sadowski, who were two of the top four America East finishers at the New England Cross Country Championships earlier this month. The Terriers have produced an individual champion in five of the past six years on the women’s side.
Larissa Kleinmann of Boston University owns the conference record with a time of 16:40.0 at the Hunt Oregon Ridge course in Hunt Valley, Md. in 1998. Dieckfoss set a new conference record for the men last year, running the Franklin Park course in a time of 23:45. He broke former Terrier Rasmussen’s record of 24:14, which had stood since 1994.
The America East Cross Country Championships have been run at several different venues and have previously been hosted by Boston University and Northeastern (at Franklin Park), University of Hartford, University of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, among others.
America East schools include Albany, Binghamton University, Boston University, Hartford, Maine, University of Maryland-Baltimore County (UMBC), New Hampshire, Northeastern, Stony Brook University and Vermont.