With the America East men’s and women’s cross country championship being held Saturday, November 1 in Albany, last weekend’s Albany Invitational could be looked at as a prelude of things to come. Albany, along with conference rivals Binghamton, New Hampshire, Northeastern and Stony Brook all competed in the meet. Also competing last weekend was Vermont at St. Michael’s College and UMBC, which competed at Lafayette’s Leopard Invitational.
Albany Cross Country Invitational
With just one point separating the two, the Great Danes managed to hold off New Hampshire to capture the men’s title at their home invitational. Joe Pienta (Valatie, N.Y./Ichabod Crane) and Andy Alstadt (Endicott, N.Y./Union-Endicott), who managed third and fourth place finishes with times of 25:17 and 25:24 respectively, led Albany. Anthony Truax (Dover, N.H./Dover) of New Hampshire was the top overall finisher at the meet, completing the course in 24:58. The Wildcats, who were ranked number nine in New England by the NEICAAA regional poll, also placed James Olsen (Londonderry, N.H./Londonderry) in the top 10 at number eight.
Coming in eighth overall was Binghamton, which was led by Pete Chambers (Newark, N.Y./ Newark) in 29th at 26:25. Stony Brook and Northeastern rounded out the men’s field with 10th and 18th place finishes respectively. Two Seawolves, Dale Summerville (Waiuku, New Zealand/King's College) and Brian Farrel (Wicklow, Ireland/Abbey Community College), landed in the top 10, while Jon Litchfield (Athol, Mass./Athol) led the Huskies with a time of 27:01.
In the women’s race, Stony Brook’s Jackie Nunez (Mt. Sinai, N.Y./Suffolk Community College) once again topped all runners as she legged out a time of 17:36, just 14 seconds ahead of New Hampshire’s Lesley Read (Dover, N.H./Dover) who took second. The Wildcats came in second, the best overall finish for an America East team, while Nunez’s Seawolves managed a fifth place standing.
Placing third overall was Binghamton, which was topped by Erica Angell (Poughkeepsie, N.Y./ Speckenkill) with a time of 18:18 and an eighth place finish. Albany finished off the day in fourth overall, placing Allysa Lotmore (Albany, N.Y./Bishop Maginn) in seventh, while Northeastern wound up in 10th place.
Vermont at St. Michael’s College
Last Friday, Vermont and Lyndon State met at St. Michael’s college in Colchester, Vt. for a good old Green Mountain cross country clash. The Vermont women, who were ranked 13th in New England by the NEICAAA, dominated the race, taking individual spots one through seven and first place overall as a team. The Catamounts were led by Michelle Palmer (Plymouth, Mass./Plymouth South) who finished first with an 18:09 finish. Lee Stanton (Fair Haven, Vt./Fair Haven) finished in sixth place as the Vermont men took third place at the meet.
Lafayette’s Leopard Invitational
The Retrievers were also in action last weekend as they competed at the Leopard Invitational at Lafayette College. Stefanie Thomas (Springfield, PA/Springfield) topped the UMBC team with a sixth place finish and a time of 20:58, while Izudin Mehmedovic (Columbia, MD/Oakland Mills) was the top UMBC men’s finisher in eighth at the 26:02 mark. The men’s team finished sixth overall while the women ended the day in fifth.