By JACKSON WANG
Sports Editor
PUBLISHED ON OCTOBER 4, 2011
  Last Friday, the men’s and women’s cross country team competed at the renowned Paul Short Run that was held at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. The men finished 14th out of 42 competitors, while the women finished 38th out of 44 competitors.
“We were disappointed with our finish because we know we are capable of [doing] a lot better,” said head coach Andrew Rickert of men’s and women’s cross country. “Races of this size don’t leave a lot of room for error and unfortunately on the women’s side, a slow start hurt our chances of getting good positioning.”
The men’s team ran an average time of 27:56. Senior Macky Lloyd lead the way for the Golden Knights with a time of 25:32 in the 8K run. This was Lloyd’s third consecutive win.
Senior Dan Gargaro, freshmen Dominick Costanzo and freshmen Ed Brown all had strong performances to helped get the 14th place finished. Costanzo and Brown finished 94th and 98th with times of 28:25 and 28:27, while Gargaro finished 99th with a time of 28:28.
“We just began cranking up the intensity of our training and volume is still relatively high so perhaps that’s why we didn’t look so sharp,” said Rickert. “But we know that’s a part of preparing for championship time and racing hard even when you’re tired prepares you for later races where you feel fresher.”
The women’s finished the 6K run of an average time of 24:50. Sophomore Jordan Westcott, finished 142, and junior Patty Massa, finished 163, lead the way for the Golden Knights with times of 24:14 and 24:28.
Also, strong performances came from junior Dana Welch and freshmen Molly Wellman with times of 24:46 and 25:19.
“We have the potential to match or better our women’s finish from last year but we have yet to race to our potential which includes being more aggressive from the gun so races don’t get away from us,” said Rickert.
This Friday, the Golden Knights will host their seventh annual Golden Knight’s Joust at The Crossing of Colonie. The race will start at 3:00 with the women’s race and then the men’s race will be underway at 3:45.
This will be the last race for the Golden Knights before the NE-10 conference championships on October 23.
“I think the team will be hungrier now going into the Joust because they all left a bit frustrated,” said Rickert. “The Joust unfortunately has became a dual meet between us and Cobleskill so I expect nothing less than two wins.”
Coach Rickert also added that he would like to see some fellow student athletes Friday afternoon at The Crossings wearing their Golden Wave shirts to support the men’s and women’s cross country runners.
