PENNINGTON, NJ – Making the program's first trip to Rosedale Park, the site of the 2015 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Cross Country Championships, the Monmouth University men's cross country team ran to a first place finish behind Kevin French's (Fishkill, NY/John Jay) top overall performance, while the women captured third following a tiebreaker, Saturday morning at the Rider Invitational.
The men, who enter the weekend ranked 14th in the Mid-Atlantic Region, earned its third-straight first place finish, earning 42 points to defeat the 10-team field, which consisted of seven of the 11 MAAC schools.
French ran the five-mile race in 24:47.2, beating out Marist's Johnny Lee by 1.7 seconds. Classmate Graham Huggins-Filozof (Freewood Acres, NJ/Freehold Township) was the second Hawk in, crossing the finish line in 24:58.9 to place fifth, followed by sophomore Ben Dillon (Cherry Hill, NJ/Cherry Hill East) who posted a time of 25:03.6, good for 10th. Kyle Mueller's (Brick, NJ/MATES) time of 25:05.6 placed the rookie in 13th, while juniors Kevin Summonte (Freehold, NJ/Freehold Township) and Gerard Sclafani (Red Bank, NJ/Butler [DeSales/US Army]) ran to times of 25:07.9 and 25:27.5, respectively. Freshman Ryan Mitchell (Lansdale, PA/La Salle College H.S.) closed out the Hawks' top-seven with a time of 25:30.2.
“The men had a gap of just 20 seconds from our first to our fifth runners, which was key for us this afternoon” stated head coach Joe Compagni. “I am very proud of Kevin for getting the win today; no one has trained harder than he has the last four years.”
The women's team, who were also slotted 14th in the Mid-Atlantic Region this week, posted 67 points along with Marist which was 18 tallies behind Quinnipiac which won the event. Junior Molly McKeon (Royersford, PA/Pope John Paul II) recorded her second top-five finish of the season, navigating the 6K (3.7 miles) in 22:33.3, good for fifth overall. Rookie Rachel Lehnert (Fair Haven, NJ/Rumson-Fair Haven), the reigning MAAC Runner of the Week, finished one second behind McKeon in sixth, while junior Jenna Cupp (Newark Valley, NY/Newark Valley) captured 12th clocking in at 22:46.0. Junior Maggie Hanlon (Toms River, NJ/Toms River North) registered 23:08.3 followed by senior Sydney Engelberger (Great Barrington, MA/Monument Mountain RHS) who ran 23:16.0. Junior Rachael Baker (Hanson, MA/Whitman Hanson Regional) and sophomore Allie Wilson (Wallingford, PA/Strath Haven) ran times of 23:52.2 and 23:57.6, respectively, to round-out the Hawks' top-seven.
“It was a big positive today to have different people step up for the women's team,” added Compagni.
Compagni concluded, ““The MAAC has some excellent teams in cross country and great depth. Both teams know that they have a lot of hard work in front of them the next few weeks. The course at Rosedale will be a great venue for the MAAC Championships in six weeks.”
Monmouth returns to the trails in two weeks when it runs in the Princeton Inter-Regional Meet in West Windsor Field in Princeton, NJ on October 3rd.
Men's Race:
1. Monmouth – 47
2. Marist – 65
3. TCNJ – 76
4. Siena – 111
4. Quinnipiac – 111
6. Rutgers – 127
7. Fairfield – 207
8. Manhattan – 208
9. FDU – 246
10. Saint Peter's – 318
Women's Race:
1. Quinnipiac – 49
2. Monmouth – 67 *
2. Marist – 67 *
4. Rider – 94
5. Manhattan – 120
6. TCNJ – 145
7. Siena – 172
8. Fairfield – 233
9. FDU – 266
10. Saint Peter's - 316
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