Fordham Cross Country has reached the home stretch of its season, with just three meets remaining on the schedule. The first of the “big four” was this past weekend in Glen Alen, Virginia for the Atlantic 10 championships. The Rams secured 3 All Atlantic 10 honors on the meet, two for the men and one for the women.
Beginning on the men’s side, juniors Thomas Slattery and Brian Cook set the pace, finishing 10th and 11th respectively.
“The importance of running all conference comes down to consistency. I’m really pleased that my training shined through enough to garner that privilege” said Slattery.
The pair each went out with the leaders from the very beginning and faded a bit towards the end, Slattery cited that strategy as the reason he secured all-conference honors: “My strategy was to hang up front and go out with the leaders. I think that strategy would have played out even better if I stayed out front with the leaders…maybe next time.”
Their teammates finished considerably far behind. Beginning with junior Louis Santelli (51st — 26:01.4), freshman Ryan Kutch (53rd — 26:02.3) and junior Nik O’Brien (57th — 26:06.7) in the top 60. Sophomore Sean Phillips (99th — 27:05.7), senior Jake Duckworth (100th — 27:06.4), senior Adam Schwenzfeier (111th — 28:11.7) and freshman Patrick Donahue (122nd — 30:36.2) rounded out the finishers. Santelli’s, Kutch’s and Phillips’ times were all career bests.
On the team scoreboard, the Rams finished seventh out of 14 teams with 184 points. Dayton took the overall title, while Duquesne’s Rico Galassi won the individual title in 24:32.3.
Fordham Women’s lone all-A10 honoree, sophomore Angelina Grebe, crossed the line in a career best time of 18:03.9, good for 23rd place. The performance was one of six career fastest performances on the day: Freshmen Abigail Taylor (40th — 18:20.2) and Sydney Snow (55th — 18:29.5), junior Stephanie Leo (57th —18:32.0), senior Cristina Ulto (68th — 18:42.4) and freshman Katarzyna Krzyzanowski (81st —18:55.9). Senior Brianne Roche (82nd — 18:57.6), junior Brynna Harum (92nd — 19:12.2), sophomore Kate McCormack (104th — 19:25.7) and senior Shanna Heaney (117th —20:02.8) were the other finishers.
The team finished a spot lower than the men at eighth of 14 teams, despite posting more points (234). UMass’ Heather MacLean secured the individual title, posting a time of 17:06.8.
Overall, there were some solid performances buried between middle of the road team results. Ten runners posted career bests, but only garnered seventh and eighth place team finishes. Slattery summed it up best: “We went into this race expecting to obtain a better result as a whole. Looking back at the results, there were a ton of great aspects that we will now be able to learn from and approach differently next year.” They could have raced better as a whole, but there is also a lot, especially individually, that can be taken away heading into their final three meets.
The final stretch of their season starts with the NCAA District Championships, at Van Cortland Park in the Bronx at 10 a.m. on Nov. 11 and ending with the NCAA Championships on Nov. 19.
