The cross country teams were in prime condition to take on some of the top Div. III teams from the East Coast this past weekend at the New York University Cross Country Invitational.
All the teams in the meet had to compete with more than just other teams, the meet was held at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, only a couple miles away from the World Trade Center.
Both teams walked away having met their goals, yet know they still have some work to do.
In the team standings the women?s team placed eighth out of a field of 32, while the men placed 10th out of 37 teams.
Individually for the women, sophomore Mary Lebrun had another outstanding race finishing 34th out of 280 runners. Other impressive performances came from sophomore Erika Wasserstein, seniors Ashley Ellms and Kadie Simon, and junior Lisa Johns. The women finished in 43, 52, 55, and 58 respectively.
?I was satisfied with our teams performance this past weekend considering that experience on this course is a necessity to do well and only two of our runners have ever run on it before,? head coach Barbara Hartwig said.
?We figured if we could finish in the top 10 in this field we would be in great shape for the rest of the season,? Hartwig added.
On the men?s side of the race they were just as successful in meeting their goals. Their 10th place finish was what they were looking for out of this meet.
?I was extremely impressed with our team?s effort as well as the improvement we showed from last week,? coach John Izzo said. ?Hopefully we can work off of this momentum for the rest of the season.?
Individually for the Yellowjac-kets freshman Dan Duett was the top finisher for the team. He placed 38th with a time of 27:48.
Junior Dave Messenheimer came in 55th place and sophomores Kevin Mille and Alex Voetsch came in 64th and 80th place, respectively. Senior Andy MacMillan rounded out the Yellowjackets? point scorers with a 91st place finish.
The runners from both teams that did not compete in the NYU meet will travel to the SUNY Geneseo Invitational to be held this weekend.
The full squads from both teams will be in action again on Meliora Weekend as they host the UR Invitational.
Johnston can be reached at cjohnston@campustimes.org.
