Bristol, R.I. – For the first time in Franciscan University's cross country history, the team headed to postseason competition on Saturday. The top seven runners from the men and women's teams competed in the Eastern College Athletic Conference championship and continued their streak of success.
The women placed fourth out of 39 teams in the 6K with a team score of 110, and the men scored 353 to earn the eleventh spot out of 44 teams running the 8K. Following last week's conference championship trend, Bill Jones and Nicole Krajewski placed first in the race. Far ahead of his competition, Jones finished with a time of 25:55.68. Second place runner Jeff Hartman of Johnson and Wales followed with a time of 26:08.19. Krajewski finished with a time of 22:21.12, with Amanda Lee from Middlebury close behind at 22:23.57.
"Bill and Nicole both started to hit their strides at the end of the season and both will have a lot of confidence going into the 2011 season," noted head coach Dan Kuebler. "It will be the first year we can qualify for the NCAA national meet and both of them have a good shot of making it."
The six Lady Baron runners following Krajewski finished strong. Katherine Manion placed eleventh out of 276 runners, running a time of 23:07.82. Following in quick succession, Kailey Gotta, Lexie Mathis and Anna Scarnechia clipped 24:03.49, 24:12.46, and 24:21.31, respectively. Tessa Livermont earned a 24:50.35 time, and Mary Manion ran her last race with her sister with a time of 25:37.5.
Earning second place among the Baron runners, Joey Schlueter ran the 8K in 27:06.93 and placed 27 out of 300 runners. Kevin LeRoy followed with a time of 27:20.30 and Jack Kaiser earned a 28:26.88 time in the championship. Michael Gotta completed the race in 29:45.51, and seniors Jonah Carlstrom and Jared Kimutis wrapped it up for Franciscan with the times of 30:15.13 and 30:50.25, respectively.
"We had a lot of runners run their last race for Franciscan Cross Country at the ECAC meet," said Kuebler. "Five of the women and two of the guys finished off their career at the meet and they did so in style. The success we have had over the past few years and the type of team we have become is in large part due to their hard work and dedication. The respect they have had for their teammates, coupled with their love for Christ, makes this team special and that legacy will continue to make this team special in the years to come."
Cross country bides farewell to the following seniors who competed as top seven runners for Franciscan: Tessa Livermont, Mary Manion, Kailey Gotta, Anna Scarnecchia, Lexie Mathis, Jonah Carlstrom, and Jared Kimutis.
Looking forward, Coach Kuebler sees even more positive growth for the returning players which will include top runners Nicole Krajewski and Bill Jones. "This was a great preparation for our underclassmen for the NCAA regional championship meet we will be competing in next year," he noted, "and it was a great meet for the seniors to finish off their career."
Congratulations, Franciscan Cross country team, on your successful 2010 season!
