Holmdel, NJ – The Monmouth University men's and women's cross country teams both ran to sixth place finishes at the 2017 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Cross Country Championships, held at Holmdel Park.  The men's team, which averaged 26:39.82, was paced by Kyle Mueller, while Amber Stratz and Allie Wilson finished nine-tenths of a second apart to lead the women's side.
The nationally ranked Iona men won their 27^th straight MAAC title, while this title was the 12^th in 13 years for their women.
 
QUOTES AND NOTES
"The MAAC has a lot of outstanding teams in cross country, but we were disappointed in the overall results. We had some outstanding individual efforts from Kyle and Ryan and Amber and Allie and a few others, but we weren't able to put together the full team race we had hoped for to finish higher. We were honestly just another strong race or two from finishing 2^nd or 3^rd on the men's side and 4^th on the women's side." – Head Coach Joe Compangi
- The Hawks, in their fifth year in the MAAC, hosted the league's cross country championships for the second time at Holmdel Park.
-Junior Kyle Mueller earns his 2^nd straight All-MAAC honor while classmate Ryan Mitchell earns his first all-MAAC honor, awarded to the top 15 finishers. The duo ran the 2^nd and 3^rdfastest times in school history on the current Holmdel Park 5 Mile course first used in 2012, which includes the Sled Hill and two trips through the Bowl Mile.
 
-The women's 6K course was new this year, including a 1000 meter loop up and down the first hill at Holmdel Park before following the standard 5K layout the rest of the way.
NUMBERS CRUNCH
-Mueller took 11^th overall, crossing the finish line in 25:24.01 to earn 11^th overall, followed by Ryan Mitchell who completed the 8k run in 26:00.59 in 13th.  Nick McFarland navigated the challenging course in 27:02.64, while Ryan Rafferty and Henry Sappey ran 27:07.19 and 27:14.65, respectively.  Jake Howell registered a time of 27:26.72 and Rob DeFalcon's time of 27:43.21 rounded out the Hawks' top-seven.
-On the women's side, Stratz clocked in at 22:43.93 to earn 22^nd overall, a spot ahead of Wilson who finished the 6k event in 22:44.01.  Dayna Luma posted a time of 23:36.31, 5.27 second ahead of rookie Kyra Velock.  Amanda Dwyer and Danielle Leavitt crossed the finish line within four seconds of each other with times of 23:52.34 and 23:55.26, while Michele Daniels closed out the Hawks' top-seven with 24:00.83.
- The men's side posted its second-best team score during its tenure in the MAAC with 124 points, nine tallies behind the program's best.
-Monmouth's women were 3^rd last year and had been in the top 4 at this meet every year since entering the league. The men finished 6^th for the second year in a row after finishing 4^th in 2015.
-The following athletes were honored by the MAAC by being named to the all-academic team:
Matt Farrell- Business Marketing and Decision Sciences
Jake Howell- Business Accounting
Evan Jerolaman- Chemistry
Dan Maida- Health Studies
Ryan Mitchell- History Education
Kyle Mueller- Computer Science
Evan Pron- Political Science
Bernard Rebecchi- Business Accounting
Shannon Averill- Nursing
Emily Beyer- Chemistry
Danielle Leavitt- English Education
Jenifer Plummer- Health Education
Amber Stratz- Health Studies
Allie Wilson- Business Marketing
UP NEXT
Following a week off, the Hawks will run at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional Championships in Bethlehem, PA on November 10.