Rensselaer’s cross country teams traveled to Clinton, N.Y., this weekend, to compete in the New York State Collegiate Track Conference Championship Invitational, which was held at Hamilton College. The overall team winner for the men’s 8K was SUNY Geneseo and the team winner for the women’s 5K was also SUNY Geneseo. Rensselaer’s men accumulated 198 points and finished eighth out of the 16 competing teams, while the women finished 11th with after tallying 292 points.
Distance Coach Andrew Weishaar felt the meet was not indicative in any way of the team’s abilities. Weishaar also commented on how the meeet allowed the team to demonstrate its depth. This weekend, Rensselaer was without freshman Bryan Murphy, and several people stepped up and had strong performances in wake of not having one of their top runners competing.
Placing first for the Red Hawks on Saturday was freshman Chris Donais with a 17th-place finish, and he was awarded Third Team All-New York State. Donais time of 27:05 was a 26 second improvement from his time on the same course at the Liberty League Championships. This Saturday, the course was in much worse condition and ran fairly slow; which highlights his improvement. When asked about the race, Donais responded, “I thought the team did okay, not quite up to our full caliber because of the injuries. I felt great during the race, especially after tapering for the past few weeks. The team as a whole seems to be doing very well and when we are at full strength should really do well at regionals.”
The women finished two places ahead of where they placed at the 2004 State Meet. RIT, Hamilton, and Fredonia all came in just in front of RPI, but are considered as teams to beat for next week’s regional race. Freshman Cathy Malloy was Rensselaer’s top female finisher and placed 21st overall. Malloy’s time of 18:57 was among the top 50 fastest times ever run for the female 5K course and earned her a spot on the Third Team All-New York State.
Joining the women for the first time in five weeks after recovering from an injury was Lauren Carter. The junior, a key component of the Red Hawk arsenal, who was only looking to shake off some rust in preparation for regionals, ran a personal record of 19:19.
This upcoming week will be reserved for rest and recovery. The Rensselaer harriers will only have one hard workout on Tuesday. RPI will be focusing on fine tuning the speed aspects of the runners. At the moment, all that matters is keeping everybody healthy for Saturday, so the best efforts can be put forth. The regional meet will be held in Rochester, N.Y.
