DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.- The Stetson men's and women's cross country teams finished competition at the
Embry-Riddle Classic on Saturday morning, with the women finishing sixth and
the men finishing seventh.
Embry-Riddle finished first as a team in the women's race,
edging out Xavier-Louisiana and Seton Hall.
Trixi Menge was the top runner for the Hatters, finishing
19th with a time of 20:50.32. The next two runners to cross the
finish line for the Hatters were junior Sabrina Guzsvany in 32nd
(21:25.75) and freshman Jessica Cosgrove in 33rd (21:27.10).
Three more Hatters finished within four places of each
other: Adrienne DeVita in 42nd (22:05.95), Alyssa Thompson in 43rd (22:08.56)
and Emmie Wenzell in 45th (22:20.97).
Wenzell, Cosgrove, and Menge all set new personal bests in
the race.
The final four Hatters runners finished as follows:
Christine Iseley 23:39.07 (60th), Connie Compton 24:22.39 (68th),
Shannon Harrell 24:30.50 (71st) and Olena Vlasyuk 26:23.89 (85th).
“I
have faith in these girls,” head coach Joe Matuszczak
said. “We are putting in a lot of
hard work and we had a great race on such a tough course. Things are continuing
to look up, and the freshmen are stepping up and starting to perform. We will
start to see chunks of time come off of their results.”
In the men's race, the Hatters finished
seventh overall. The host school Embry-Riddle took home the title by having the
top three individual finishers in the race.
Andrew Epifanio led the Hatters by finishing 27th
overall with a time of 29:53.08. This was the first race in which both Epifanio
and Guzsvany ran, which is something Matuszczak was happy to see.
“They
are both coming back from health issues, so it is nice to see them back,” Matuszczak said. “They are leaders on this team,
and are integral parts of our success. They are going to only get better as the
season continues.”
Cody Malloy was the second Hatter to complete the men's
race, finishing 45th with a time of 30:54.95.
Andrew Townes finished with a time of 31:45.54 (55th)
and Ryan Hodgins followed with a time of 31:51.94 (57th). Angelo
Parkinson finished 76th with a time of 33:56.26 and Brian Dughi
finished 79th with a time of 34:04.16.
Rounding out the pack for the Hatters were James Welch III
in 88th (36:18.95), Deryck Greene in 92nd (37:07.54),
Austyn Finnk in 96th (37:42.67) and Matthew Ady in 105th
(42:26.00).
“The
guys are putting in a lot of hard work and it continues to show,” Matuszczak said. “Many of the runners were able
to get close to what they ran last week, and that is a big step since this is
such a tough course.
"This was a substantial improvement from last week,
and we are beginning to run well as a team. Once we get everybody back, we will
be running on all cylinders and headed in the right direction.”
Stetson was without senior Kyle Burton, who missed this
race due to a knee injury he sustained earlier this week.
“It's one of those things we have to play day-by-day,” Matuszczak said. “Within the next couple of
days, a lot of these nagging things will be gone and we can get our full roster
back out there.”
The Stetson cross country teams will be back in action next
Friday night at the FLrunners.com Invitational. The races will be held in
Titusville.
Men's Team Results: 1)
Embry-Riddle 21; 2) Seton Hall 68; 3) Flagler; 4) Embry-Riddle Alumni 105; 5)
Xavier-Louisiana 128; 6) Bethune-Cookman 180; 7) Stetson 192; 8) Southeastern
232; 9) Warner 273; 10) Johnson & Wales 284; 11) Rollins College 288; 12)
Florida College 295
Women's Team Results: 1) Embry-Riddle
47; 2) Xavier-Louisina 70; 3) Seton Hall 88; 4) Flagler 105; 5) Rollins College
123; 6) Stetson 152; 7) Bethune-Cookman 206; 8) Florida College 228; 9)
Southeastern 247; 10) Lynn 257; 11) Ave Maria 320; 12) Warner 335
