PRINCETON, N.J. - With the Northeast Conference Championships two weeks away, the Monmouth University women's and men's cross country teams competed at the Princeton Invitational, Saturday afternoon at West Windsor Fields. The women, which claimed third place out of 13 teams, were paced by senior Jennifer Nelson's (Barnegat, N.J./Barnegat [Ocean County College]) and junior Amanda Eller's (Delmont, N.J./Millville) eighth and 15th place finishes.
"We still have some more work to do, but the women raced very well and worked hard to stay close to the front of the field," said head coach Joe Compagni.
MU, which tallied 120 points, only trailed Yale and St. Joseph's which finished first and second with 15 and 71 tallies, respectively. Keene State finished fourth with 153 points followed by Haverford and host school Princeton which each claimed 156 points to share fifth. Columbia finished seventh one point behind the Fords and Tigers, while Elizabethtown (188 points), University of Miami (214 points) and UMBC (220 points) completed the top-10 in the field of 13.
In very windy conditions, Nelson produced a time of 22:27, on the 3.8 mile course, just breaking the program-record on the West Windsor course of 22.27.7 set by Cailin Lynam in 2007. Eller registered a time of 23:03 followed by classmate Kelsey Maher (Jackson, N.J./Jackson Memorial) who crossed the finished line 27 second later in 20th place. Junior Emily MacEwen (South Glastonbury, Conn./Glastonbury) posted a time of 23:53 good for 29th followed by sophomore Lucia Montefusco (Levittown, N.Y./MacArthur) in 48th with a time of 25:41. Sophomore Marissa Felicetti (Old Bridge, N.J./Old Bridge) and junior Stacey Lepes (Branchville, N.J./High Point Regional) rounded out the Hawks' top-seven with times of 25:41 and 25:55, respectively.
The men, who claimed 14th place in the 8k (5-mile) race, were led by rookie Khari Bowen (Monroe, N.J./Monroe Township) who registered a time of 25:36 for 37th place, good for a new Monmouth freshman record at Princeton, and fourth all-time at the event. Senior Dan Collura (Jackson, N.J./Jackson Memorial) followed Bowen and finished second for the Blue and White in 26:17. Trailing Collura was classmate Garth DeBlasio (Millstone, N.J./Allentown) and sophomore Seth Robbins (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Cumberland Valley) who both posted a time of 26:51. Senior Jeffrey Ascough (Somers, N.Y./Somers) was the next Hawk to finish recording a time of 26:56 followed by junior Sean Hartnett (Marlton, N.J./Cherokee) and senior Ryan Mulligan (Hazlet, N.J./Raritan), who completed the squad's top-seven, with times of 27:05 and 27:10 respectively.
Monmouth is back in action Saturday, October 29th, as it hosts the Northeast Conference Championships at Holmdel Park in Holmdel, New Jersey. The men's race kicks-off at 10 a.m. followed by the women's race at 11:15 a.m.
