UNIVERSITY PARK, PA. - The Monmouth University women's and men's cross country teams registered a 12th and 21st place finishes, respectfully, Saturday afternoon at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional hosted by Penn State. The 12th place finish for the women's squad's is the best finish at the event in program history.
The Mid-Atlantic Region consists of 37 Division I teams that range from West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, and Washington D.C.
Villanova took women's crown with 29 points followed by Georgtown with 40. Host school Penn State tallied 102 points trailed by Princeton (102), West Virginia (152) and La Salle (156). Bucknell registered a seventh place finish with 290 points followed by Penn (308), Leigh (322) and Navy (329). Duquesne registered 368, crossing the finish line in 11th followed by the Hawks with 385 points edging Maryland by one. Loyola (Md.) and St. Josheph's rounded out the top 15 out of the 37 schools that competed in the 6k (3.7 mile) race.
The women's finish is the highest in Northeast Conference history since Quinnipiac took ninth in 2006.
"The women raced hard and for each other today," said Northeast Conference Coach of the Year Joe Compagni. "They had not been ranked in the top-15 all season but we really felt like we could run with some of the best teams in the region."
The Blue and White were paced by junior Jen Nelson's (Barnegat, N.J./Barnegat) 44th place finish with a time of 21:55, the second highest finish in school history. Five spots behind Nelson was graduate student Christina Nelson (Little Silver, N.J./Red Bank [Maryland]) who registered a time of 22:06, recording the first time ever two Hawks crossed the finish line in the top-50 while setting the new MU course record at Penn State. Sophomore Kelsey Maher (Jackson, N.J./Jackson Memorial) registered a 75th place finish with a time of 22:41 while senior Christine Altland (Hazlet, N.J./Raritan) completed the course in 23:14. Freshman Lucia Montefusco (Levittown, N.Y./MacArthur) finished four seconds behind Altland at 23:18 while sophomore classmates Amanda Eller (Delmont, N.J./Millville) and Emily MacEwen (South Glastonbury, Conn./Glastonbury) rounded out the Hawks' top seven with times of 23:28 and 24:03.
The men's squad, who was ranked as high as 15th in the region this season, finished 21st out of 37 schools, which was an improvement from their 25th place finish in 2009.
"The men were ranked in the top-15 earlier this fall, so we were hoping for more today," commented Compagni. "The good news is that we get one more opportunity to finish off the season the right way next weekend [at the ECAC Division I & IC4A Championships]."
MU was lead by senior Ben Hutterer (Millstone, N.J./Allentown) who crossed the finish line in83rd place in 32:28, which sets a new Monmouth course record at PSU, breaking Nick Pellegrino's mark of 32:53 set in 2000. Junior Dan Collura (Jackson, N.J./Jackson Memorial) completed the 10k (6.2 miles) 16 seconds later in 93rd place trailed by classmate Mike Bertocchi (Morris Plains, N.J./Parsippany Hills) who finished in 33:32. Juniors Todd Apgar (Somers, N.Y./Somers) and Garth DeBlasio (Millstone, N.J./Allentown) finished fourth and fifth for the Hawks with times of 33:43 and 34:03, respectfully. Senior Billy Dowd and freshman Seth Robbins rounded out the top seven for the Blue and White, completing the race three seconds apart in 34:52 and 34:55.
Both squads will head to Van Cortlandt Park in Bronx, N.Y. for the ECAC Division I & IC4A Championships next Saturday, November 20th. The women's race will begin at 11:45 a.m. with the men's race starting at 12:15 p.m.
