By JACKSON WANG
Sports Editor
PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 1, 2011
On October 23, the Golden Knights men’s and women’s cross country team competed at the NE-10 conference championships at Stanley Park in Westfield, MA. Both the men’s and women’s squad finished ninth in the conference championship.
“We went out there and competed hard, however, the conference grew in leaps and bounds this year with new talent coming in and returning runners going to a new level,” said Andrew Rickert, head coach of men’s and women’s cross country.
On the men’s team, senior Macky Lloyd broke his own school record finishing 18th of the 165 runners with a time of 25:08.73 in the 8k run. Lloyd was not at full strength competing in this race.
“He would’ve easily been among the top five if he had been healthy,” said Rickert. “The fact that he was in as much pain as he was and he still ran like he did for the last two miles is remarkable.”
Next up to finish for the Golden Knights was freshmen Ed Brown finishing 54th. Brown took nearly two minutes of his personal best with a time of 26:39.49.
Two more runners finished in the top half of the NE-10 conference championship for the Golden Knights. Senior Dan Gargaro and junior Nathan Bub finished 63rd and 83rd with times of 26:51.36 and 27:24.42.
The women’s team just missed finishing eighth by seven points. Three runners finished in the top 50 in the 6k run, sophomore Jordan Westcott finished 29th with a time of 18:58.98, freshmen Bianca Jordan finished 37th with a time of 19:10.53, and junior Liz Dalla finished 48th with a time 19:22.37.
“We have such a stronger team then we did last year and our training was going really well,” said junior Emma Cohen. “I thought we would at least get fourth so it was a pretty big shock when we ended up in ninth.”
Four more runners finished in the top 100 for the Golden Knights. Freshman Jess Ayotte and junior Dana Welch finished 62nd and 66th with times of 19:38.98 and 19:42.28. Freshmen Molly Wellman and junior Emma Cohen finished 72nd and 79th with times of 19:49.13 and 20:01.76.
“Finishing ninth will definitely lower other team’s expectations of how we will do which I think is what we want,” said Cohen. “We would rather be the underdogs going in then having targets on our backs.”
It was a bittersweet performance for the runners. The men’s side expected to finish in the top eight, while the women expected to finish the top five. Still, multiple personal bests were set in the same race.
“It’s hard to complain as a coach when 88% of your runners achieve personal bests or season bests on the same day,” said Rickert. “I feel like we did about as good as we could, given the competition.”
Last year, five runners from the women’s team finished under the time of 20:31 and took third place at the NE-10 conference championship. This year, eleven runners from the women’s team finished under the time of 20:33 and took ninth. The talent level has not only grown around Saint Rose, but also in the rest of the NE-10 conference.
Next up for the Golden Knights will be the East Regional Championship held in Boston on November 6 at 1:30p.m.
“I know the team is looking to finish the season on a brighter note,” said Rickert. “We just need to believe in ourselves and run as a team.”
