It was the second meet in a series of championship meets for the men’s and women’s cross country teams as both teams traveled to Ithaca College for the New York State Cross Country Championship last Saturday.
The men picked up their feet from last week’s disappointing race while the women held their ground from last week’s performance, both grabbing the fifth place title.
The men scored 173 points compared to Ithaca’s first place total of 30 points. On the women’s side, UR had 179 points while the strong team from Ithaca had 42.
Although the Blue Knights from Ithaca captured the team title it was St. Lawrence junior Kris Enwright who captured the men’s individual title.
For the third straight meet junior Dave Messen-heimer has earned his nickname “Theace.” He was the closet Yellowjacket to the top spot, his time of 27:02 was good enough for a 16th place finish.
Sophomore Alex Voetsch stepped up his performance and backed up Messen-heimer’s performance with a 25th place finish of his own.
Senior leadership was also present during this race. Seniors Jon Salerno, P.J. Maglione and Andy Mac-Millan rounded out the point scorers for UR. They placed 41st, 48th and 51st respectively.
The women’s race was controlled by a junior from SUNY Geneseo, Melissa White, who completed the race in a time of 18:01.
White was also victorious the last two times the Yellowjackets saw her. She placed first at the UR Invitational in October and the SUNY Geneseo Invitational in September.
For the Yellowjacket women, Erika Wasserstein shined again.
She added another ribbon to her trophy shelf by being named to the First Team All-State squad after her performance at States.
“Her time was outstanding considering the set back she had,” Hartwig said. “She is definitely getting stronger and more confident.”
This honor backed up her First Team All University Athletic Association honors performance from last week.
This week, she placed sixth with a time of 18:49.
Senior Amanda Danforth earned herself a 29th place finish with a time of 19:47. Her teammates sophomore Lisa Brassaw, senior Jaime Dimmig and junior Madeline Worsnopp also scored points for UR.
Next week will be an important one for both teams. They travel to New York University for the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s Regional meet.
“We should be feeling pretty good about this weeks meet,” Hartwig said. “We’ll finally have full ammunition.”
This meet features the best Div. III teams from New York and New Jersey. This is the Yellowjackets’ chance to qualify for the NCAA Championships to be held in Rock Island, Ill. a week later.
Johnston can be reached at cjohnston@campustimes.org.
