The America East Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Championship will be held at Binghamton University on Saturday (October 29). It will mark the first time that the conference’s premier meet is held at Binghamton. The women compete on a 5,000-meter course at 11 a.m. while the men run 8,000 meters starting at 12 noon.
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 13 of the previous 16 women’s championships, including last year’s. University of Vermont (1989) and New Hampshire (2003) are the only schools from the present membership to have also won a women’s title. Defending men’s champion University of Maine has placed in the top five for six consecutive years. Boston University has won eight of the previous 16 men’s championships with University of New Hampshire winning the other seven.
Boston University senior Victoria Botticelli (Garden Grove, Calif.) was last year’s individual champion. She covered the 5K course, at the University of New Hampshire, in a time of 17:22.50. Botticelli and the Terriers will look to capture this year’s team title for the second year in a row. On the men’s side, Albany’s Robbie Freeman (New Hyde Park, N.Y./Great Neck South) is the top returnee from 2004. He finished sixth overall last year, running 24:39 over the 8K course. Albany has never won a team championship.
Stony Brook’s Leonora Joy (Auckland, New Zealand/University of Technology) will be a top contender for the women’s crown. Joy finished second overall last season with a time of 17:31. She has had a very strong season, earning top performer of the week twice.
Binghamton’s Katie Radzik (Mt. Sinai, N.Y.) will be another runner to watch for. Radzik has competed well all season and has led the Bearcats every race.
The University of Maine’s Kirby Davis (Falmouth, Maine/Falmouth) and Donald Drake (Portland, Maine/Deering) will look to improve their placement from last year’s race, eighth and ninth, respectively. Both have earned weekly awards and have been top performers for the Black Bears all season. Sophomore David Woods (York, Maine/York) will also look to contribute to the scoring this year.
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. Jochen Dieckfoss, of Boston U. 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, 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, Stony Brook University and Vermont.