MEN'S CROSS COUNTRY WINS RUNNIN' MONKS INVITATIONAL 8K

STANDISH, ME – Saint Joseph's College hosted the 11th Annual Runnin' Monks Invitational men's cross country 8K race on Saturday afternoon. Led by individual champion Sean Colford, Emmanuel College tallied 67 points to claim top team accolades.

Colford, who toured the challenging 8K trail in 28:05, outran a pair of Johnson & Wales University athletes to claim the crown. JWU runners Adam Sachs (28:17) and Brian Dinan (28:21) placed second and third, respectively, and Robert Nichols of Norwich University (28:28) finished fourth. Saint Joseph's freshman Cody Vacon (Shapleigh, Maine) was fifth with a 28:41 performance – the fastest time by a Monks' runner in the SJC-hosted event since Ryan Prescott '09 won the race with a 27:41 effort in 2008.

A total of 15 teams participated in the 11th running of the Runnin' Monks race, which featured the largest group of individual runners – 120 – to ever compete in a men's race on the Saint Joseph's College campus. With Emmanuel securely in first place, Norwich University claimed runner-up honors with 85 points while Johnson & Wales (121 points), Thomas College (129) and Saint Joseph's (136) rounded out the top five competing institutions in the event.

University of New England (6th, 139 points), Maine-Farmington (7th, 140), Johnson State College (8th, 203), Husson University (9th, 236), Lasell College (10th, 254), Emerson College (11th, 274) and Nicholls College (12th, 284) also participated in the 8K race.

University of Maine-Machias and Newbury College also featured runners in the race but did not score.

The win for Emmanuel College is the Saints' first in the Runnin' Monks race. Emerson captured the crown last fall and Johnson & Wales collected titles in 2009, 2010 and 2011.

For Saint Joseph's, junior Joe DiSalvo (Derry, N.H.) placed 12th (29:11), freshman Nick Shuckrow (Winslow, Maine) finished 13th (29:14) and sophomore Andrew Caron (Cape Elizabeth, Maine) was 49th (31:13).

On the women's side, Husson University captured top team honors with 61 points in the 11th Annual Runnin' Monks Invitational women's cross country 5K at Saint Joseph's College on Saturday morning.

With the top two runners and four in the top 16 overall, the Eagles nipped Emmanuel College by just five points to claim the Runnin' Monks title for the first time. Saint Joseph's placed third (71 points), Norwich University was fourth (112) and University of New England rounded out the top five participating institutions with 123 points.

Husson's Chrissy Larrabee earned top-individual honors with a 20:22 time, just two seconds ahead of her teammate, Alecia Palmer. Saint Joseph's junior Amber Dostie (Standish, Maine) was third (20:52), Emerson's Ali Dokuis placed fourth (20:55) and SJC junior Heather Eaton (Lincolnville, Maine) finished with a 20:58 time to close out the top five individual runners in the 5K event.

Larrabee is the third Husson runner to claim the Runnin' Monks Invitational title, as she joins Michelle Estes, who won the inaugural SJC-hosted event with a 23:06 time in 2003, and Angela Stauble, who took the title with a 20:37 effort in 2010.

In what was by far the largest women's race ever hosted on the SJC campus, the Monks placed four runners in the top 10 but could not crack the top two in a very competitive field that included 130 total individuals from 14 colleges and universities from around the New England region.

Previously, the largest women's race on the Saint Joseph's College campus took place on November 1st, 2008, when 102 runners participated in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Championship.

For Saint Joseph's, Dostie, Eaton and sophomore Lauren Rabideau (Ballston Spa, N.Y.), who toured the 5K course in 20:58 to finish fifth overall, all placed in the top five. Freshman Marie Harrington (Limerick, Maine) also finished near the front of the pack with a 10th-place (21:26) effort.

Johnson & Wales University (6th, 131 points), Emerson College (7th, 184), Lasell College (8th, 235), Johnson State College (9th, 256), Anna Maria College (10th, 261), Thomas College (11th, 327) and Newbury College (12th, 370) also competed in the 5K women's race.

University of Maine-Machias, University of Maine-Farmington and Nichols College also participated in the event but did not score.

*Release courtesy of Saint Joseph's College Sports Information Dept.