PRINCETON, N.J. ? The Monmouth University women's cross country team finished 16th out of 37 teams and the men's cross country team finished 19th out of 37 teams at the NCAA Division I Mid-Atlantic Regional Championships at Princeton. The women matched their finish from last year, which equals the second best finish in school history, while the logged their best finish since 2003 the second best finish in school history.
The Monmouth women's team was the top NEC team at the regional competition. The women's course was 6,100 meters (3.8 miles) and was run in very muddy conditions.
“Most of our top seven on the women's side went into the day at less than 100 percent,” said head coach Joe Compagni. “They showed a lot of heart and courage to get the results that we got today.”
Christine Altland (Hazlet, N.J./Raritan) led the MU women, and logged one of the top ten finishes in school history at the NCAA Regional meet, with a 71st place finish, followed closely by Cailin Lynam (Sparts, N.J./Sparta) who came in 87th. Senior Jessica Jones (Wilkes-Barre, Pa./Dallas) came in 102nd and sophomore Courtney Spratford (Califon, N.J./Voorhees) came in 105th. Tiffany McKenna (Swainton, N.J./Wildwood Catholic) finished 137th, senior Laura Embrey (West Long Branch, N.J./Shore Regional) came in 167th and Juliet Smith (Freedom, Pa./Freedom Area) rounded out the MU women in 173rd.
The Monmouth men's team was the top NEC team in any Region this year. The men's course was 10,000 meters (6.2 miles) and also ran in very muddy conditions.
“Another coach today said the men's race was more like the effort of a half-marathon than a 10K because the conditions were so tough out there,” said Compagni.
The men were paced by Pete Forgach (Long Branch, N.J./Red Bank Catholic) who finished 54th , which was the fourth best finish in school history for the Hawks at the NCAA Regional meet.
Ben Hutterer (Saxonburg, Pa./Knoch)finished 86th , while Billy Dowd (Staten Island, N.Y./St. Peter's) came in 116th. A quartet of freshman, Dan Collura (Jackson, N.J./Jack son) [134th], Ryan Mulligan (Hazlet, N.J./Raritan) [140th], Garth DeBlasio (Millstone, N.J./Allentown) [143rd] and Alec Richardson (Mountaintop, Pa./Bishop Hoban) [164th] rounded out the MU men's contingent.
“Even though we are young (four of the Hawks' top seven men who ran today were freshmen), I thought all year that we were at least as good if not better than last year,” said Compagni. “Our conference meet results were not better than last year, when we were second in the NEC. But today, we did improve our finish from last year and actually had our best finish in the last several years, even with a lot of newcomers in the race for us.”
