Men’s Cross Country Takes Part in UMass Dartmouth Invitational

DARTMOUTH, Mass. – The Worcester State University men's cross country team finished 24^th place out of over 40 colleges from Division I, II, and III colleges this weekend at the UMass Dartmouth Invitational.

THE BASICS
September 16, 2017
UMass Dartmouth Invitational

TOP-10 TEAM SCORES
1^st Place: UMass Lowell (82)
2^nd Place: Brandeis (85)
3^rd Place: Salisbury (132)
4^th Place: Connecticut College (155)
5^th Place: Adelphi (161)
6^th Place: American International (163)
7^th Place: Babson (237)
8^th Place: Fitchburg State (238)
9^th Place: Assumption (253)
10^th Place: Trinity (274)

WORCESTER STATE TOP-6
106^th Place, Christian Vera (28:02)
114^th Place, Devin Luce (28:09)
144^th Place, Richard Custodio (28:52)
163^rd Place, Michael Ricci (29:18)
173^rd Place, Joseph Grider (29:25)
205^th Place, Marques Johnson (30:58)

RECAP
On a course that is traditionally a flat and fast course, the team ran out from the start aggressively and established themselves in a good place early in the race. However, the effects of the past couple weeks' sickness and minor injuries interrupted training caught up with them in the later stages of the race. 

In addition, freshman Dan Roy would need to abort the race with only a mile and a half to go after being among the top 40-50 runners to that point in a field that was extremely competitive.  Of the remaining top seven, only junior Christian Vera, came into the race 100% healthy.

Babson's Matthew Dynan won the individual title, running the 8K in a time of 25:23.

COACHES CORNER
Stated head coach Al Halper, "The result was significantly off of our goal as we had hoped to be among the top 15 in the standings. Losing Dan in the late stages of the race and realizing we are still not 100% this week pushed us back out of that goal range. In addition, it was muggy and hot and that did not bade well for the guys just coming off of being sick.  Despite that, the results are encouraging as we have the talent to be a lot better over the rest of the season and into the conference championships. I told the guys to be patient and to learn from today by working on their racing tactics as we move forward. There is always something each runner can take away from a racing opportunity to compete better the next time. This is a great group of guys who will make the necessary adjustments."  

Halper added as to the sub varsity race, "The guys in the sub varsity race were very effective last week filling in and this week, showed up and did well again. There was significant improvement form this group of runners. Freshman Zachary LaJeunesse (29:49) gets stronger with each race and stands a good chance to break in among the top seven as the season continues. Jeff Davis and sophomores Patrick Donahue, Christian Torres, and Alex Dalellio had solid races as did freshmen John Shugrue and Omar Cordova. As this group develops weekly, they will continue to make team contributions."

UP NEXT
Next Saturday (Sep. 23), Worcester State University will host the Worcester City Meet at Moore State Park in Paxton, Mass. The women's race is at 10am, and the men will follow at 10:45am.

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