Women Seventh, Men 10th At Meet Of Champions
Complete Results
BRONX, N.Y. – The University at Albany men's and women's cross country teams each earned top-10 team finishes in their second meet, and first big invitational of the season. Competing in Iona College's 20th Br. Doyle Meet of Champions, the women's team placed seventh and the men's team placed 10th.
The women, who entered the meet as defending team champions, were running shorthanded due to injuries this weekend, fielding only six runners. Silvia Del Fava, making her season debut, won the individual title, completing the 6K course in 22:27.6, improving on her performance at last year's meet where she finished fifth in 22:44.6.
“Silvia wasn't feeling great at practice yesterday,” said head coach Matt Jones, “and the plan was for her to warm up today and make a decision about racing afterwards. I gave her the option to step out if she wasn't feeling well. I think she's fit, but she's also not completely healthy. She was in a group of five coming down the hill and pulled away from them, so it was a good win for her.”
Valentina Talevi followed Del Fava in 21st place, finishing in 23:08.5. Molly Pezzulo, who won UAlbany's first race of the season, placed 23rd in 23:14.0.
“Valentina had never run this course before,” said Jones, “so she did a nice job. And Molly improved nearly a minute from her time last year.”
Schuyler Pruyn finished 88th with a time of 24:59.9. Colleen Maloney was 107th in 25:46.0. And Kasia Geiger was 127th in 26:48.2. The women's field featured 164 athletes and 20 scoring teams. Brown won the race handily, scoring 38 points. Yale was second, scoring 86 points, and Princeton was third with 141 points. UAlbany took seventh scoring 203 points. Additionally, four of the 20 women's teams held regional rankings. In the latest Northeast poll, Brown is 15th, Yale is seventh, and Iona is 11th. Princeton is fifth in the Mid-Atlantic poll.
“It hurts being shorthanded like the women were today, but overall I think it was a pretty good effort,” said Jones.”
The men were 16th a year ago, improving to 10th this year. UAlbany's top five finished with a time gap of 18 seconds. Kyle Gronostaj finished first for the Danes, placing 47th with a finishing time of 26:59.7 over the 8K course. James Sommer finished 49th in 27:00.4. John DeLallo immediately followed in 50th 27:01.7. Chris Buchanan, who won UAlbany's first meet two weeks ago, was 65th 27:13.3. Finishing fifth for UAlbany was Tyler Ranke, who placed 68th in 27:13.3. Also competing for UAlbany was Raymond Farinella, who finished 92nd 27:47.2, Youness Benzaid, who made his season debut finishing 94th in 27:47.2, Austin Lane, who finished 119th in 28:17.7, Peter Schweitzer, who finished 120th in 28:19.1, Jonathan Moore, who finished 124th in 28:22.2, Jordan Healy, who finished 135th in 28:40.2, and Keith Machabee, who finished 178th in 30:40.3.
“The men had a good gap today,” said Jones, “but we need to move the whole group forward. The way the race unfolded, I think the men might be in better shape than their performances. I think they had more to give, so for today, that gap is okay.”
The men's field featured 208 runners and 23 scoring teams. Arkansas won the team title, scoring 47 points. Fordham was second with 67 points, and Brown was third with 95 points. UAlbany scored 279 points in 10th place. Like the women's race, the men's race featured four regionally ranked squads. In the Northeast Poll, Brown is ranked 10th, Yale is ranked fifth, and Iona is ranked second. Arkansas is ranked first in the South Central Poll. Further, Iona and Arkansas are ranked 12th and 13th respectively in the latest national poll.
“I really look at teams like UMass-Lowell, Buffalo, and Binghamton as teams the men can run off of, or run with,” said Jones. “In our conference, UMass-Lowell ran great, taking the individual title over the Arkansas guys. But we improved from a year ago, and after today we have a few more guys in the mix, which is always helpful.”
The course at Van Cortlandt Park is difficult, particularly because of the presence of the Back Hills and the Cemetery Hill in the men's race, though the women's course avoids the Back Hills. The Northeast Regional Championships are run at Van Cortlandt later in the season, but that course will avoid both the Back Hills and Cemetery Hill.
“Van Cortlandt is a challenging course, particularly at 8K, the way Iona runs it,” said Jones. “It's one of the toughest courses we will run all year. And we had good conditions today, though it was a little hot on the course. But everyone has to run the same.”
With the next race two weeks away, Coach Jones turns his focus to his next training cycle.
“For the men, you want a small gap, but you don't necessarily want that many guys that close. It means we're not stretching it out as much as we should, which is an indicator there is room for improvement. Sooner or later we need to break loose, get separation, and get some guys up front. So we'll adjust from this race and move forward.”
“Training wise, I think we're still in the adaptation phase,” Jones continued. “We're not resting, and we're still training through competitions at this point. So, for the rest of September we'll continue to increase the volume, and in October we'll try to move it a little bit faster.”
Next up for UAlbany is Lehigh's Paul Short Invitational, on Saturday, October 4.
