Men's and Women's Cross Country Both Finish Second at Worcester City Meet

PAXTON, Mass. - Both the Worcester State University men's and women's cross country teams finished second at Saturday morning's Worcester City Meet, held at Moore State Park.

WPI won the event on both the men's and women's side, accumulating 25 points on the women's side, and 15 on the men's side. WPI's Jake Scarponi (Barrington, N.H.) won the men's 8k race with a time of 27:27, while the women's 6k was won by WPI's Sydney Packard (Georgetown, Mass.). 

The Worcester State women had a pair of finishers reach the podium, as senior Mia Rogers (North Dighton, Mass.) and junior Elisabeth Olson (Wilmington, Mass.) took second and third place respectively. Rogers ran the 6k in a time of 24:48, while Olson ran the course in a time of 25:05. Reigning MASCAC Rookie of the Week Ryann Molinari (Grafton, Mass.) finished in ninth place overall in the race with a time of 25:59. Junior Kyra Siano (North Attleboro, Mass.) and senior Kelsey Bedard (Leominster, Mass.) finished in 12th and 13th place respectively, running identical times of 26:32 to round out the Lancers' top five. 

Five of the top eight women's runners on the morning were donning WPI red, propelling the Engineers to the victory. Following the champion Packard for WPI were graduate student Emily Newman (Easton, Mass.), who finished in fourth, sophomore Keely Nistler (Vadnais Heights, Minn.), who finished in fifth, and seventh and eighth place finishers Ciara Young (Milton, Mass.) and Steffany Halfrey (Hubbardston, Mass.).

Clark University finished in third place on the women's side with 79 points, and were led by 11th place finisher Nicolina Braccio (Nashua, N.H.). Sixth place finisher Alice Najimy (Pittsfield, Mass.) was the leader for Simmons University, who finished in fourth place. 

As they historically have, the WPI men dominated the race on Saturday taking the top six spots on the leaderboard. Following Scarponi, in order, for the Engineers were Michael Brady (Medway, Mass.), Owen Lally (Lebanon, Conn.), Tom Hanlon (Derry, N.H.), Avery Ingegneri (Warwick, R.I.), and Logan Gaudette (Holden, Mass.).

Defending MASCAC Rookie of the Week, Lancer freshman Patrick Carleton (Tewksbury, Mass.) broke the run for WPI with his seventh place finish and time of 28:26. Drew Fottler (Chelmsford, Mass.) followed just behind Carleton in eighth place, running the race in 28:37. Lancer rookies Masato Terajima (Holden, Mass.), Colin Brennan (Newbury, Mass.), and Tim Mahoney (Townsend, Mass.) rounded out the top five for Worcester State, finishing in 14th, 18th, and 19th place respectively.

Fitchburg State was the afternoon's third place team with 93 points, led by 16th place runner Timothy Sheehy (Wakefield, R.I.). The Falcons narrowly defeated Clark University, who finished with 99 points. Clark was led by Cameron Keenan (South Glastonbury, Conn.), who finished the race in 24th place. 

The Lancers will be off next weekend before participating in the 50th Annual Codfish Bowl at Franklin Park in Boston on Sept. 22.