Over the weekend, the Fordham men’s and women’s cross country teams traveled to Boston to compete in the Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown. This was a tough meet for everyone competing, as there were many teams with hundreds of runners in each race. In the end, the men’s team came in tenth out of 21 Division I programs, while the women’s team finished in 20th out of 24 teams.
The men’s cross country team had a great finish on Friday. Graduate runner Jonathan Annelli was the first Ram to cross the finish line, with a time of 24:42.9 placing him in the 36th spot. Senior Quincy O’Connor followed him with a 64th place finish, coming in with a time of 25:08.3.
Next was sophomore Thomas Slattery, who came in 73rd with a time of 25:19.1. “The race went well in terms of how we raced it because we focused more on finishing closer to one another in a pack,” Slattery said. “We could not have done that better.”
Senior Michael Turi, at 25:20.6, finished in 75th. Sophomore Nik O’Brien was the last Ram to place in the top 100, with his time of 25:22.2 putting him in 78th place. The men’s team had a solid finish, placing 10th overall.
The women’s cross country team also ended well in Friday’s meet. Freshman Angelina Grebe was the first of her teammates to finish, with a time of 18:43.6 putting her in 118th place. She was followed by freshman Kate McCormack, who finished in 142nd place with a time of 18:59.9. Sophomore Stephanie Leo, with a time of 19:01.1, placed 145th. Next was classmate Brynna Harum, who placed 157th with a time of 19:14. Junior Brianne Roche, with a time of 19:20.4, finished in 164th place. Finally, Rachel Picard was the last of the Rams to come in the top 200 spots, crossing the finish line with a time of 19:41.9, which put her in 177th place. Overall, the women’s team had a good day with a 20th place finish.
The race went well for the team, with each runner pushing the others to do better. Considering the fact that there were so many runners in each race, the Fordham Rams decided to try and run as a pack.
The results definitely showed this, as a group of the men finished within 14 spots of each other.
Though the teams might not be too fond of their finish times, they ran their best. They will continue to work hard and improve their performance, but overall they have had a successful three weeks.
“It was a great race to see how well we all worked together considering we are a fairly young team,” McCormack said. “I am very excited to see what we can accomplish this season as a team.”
The next time the cross country teams compete will be on Friday, Oct. 9. They will be hosting the Metropolitan Cross Country Championships at Van Cortlandt Park at 1:30 p.m.
