WOMEN’S CROSS COUNTRY COMPETES IN ECAC CHAMPIONSHIP
WESTFIELD, Mass. – The Emmanuel College Women’s Cross Country Team took on a longer distance on Saturday afternoon, competing in the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division III New England Championship, hosted by Westfield State University. The 6k distance proved challenging for the Saints, but Emmanuel hung tough, racing to a 42nd place team finish. Williams College men and women swept the championships at Stanley Park. The Williams men’s team out-ran 51 other teams to capture their second consecutive title, while the women beat out 56 squads to claim their first crown since 2008.
WESTFIELD, Mass. – The Emmanuel College Women's Cross Country Team took on a longer distance on Saturday afternoon, competing in the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division III New England Championship, hosted by Westfield State University. The 6k distance proved challenging for the Saints, but Emmanuel hung tough, racing to a 42nd place team finish. Williams College men and women swept the championships at Stanley Park. The Williams men's team out-ran 51 other teams to capture their second consecutive title, while the women beat out 56 squads to claim their first crown since 2008.
The Ephs used four top-14 finishes to defeat runner-up, University of New England, by 12 points on the women's side. Three other NESCAC schools rounded out the top five with Middlebury College taking third place with 85 points and Tufts College (109 points) and Trinity College (178 points) earning fourth and fifth place, respectively.
Freshman Rebecca Delacruz-Grunderson (Lake Forest Park. Wash.) led the way for Williams, taking home the individual championship with a time of 22:15.27. Senior Anna Spiers (Chester, Va.), sophomore Michelle Buncke (Lake Osewgo, Ore.) and junior Meg Richardson (Iowa City, Iowa) also put together stellar performances for the Ephs. Spiers crossed the finish line fifth with a time of 22:20.59, while Buncke claimed 11th with a time 22:47.62 and Richardson finished 14th with a 6K of 22:57.58. The University of New England earned three spots in the top-six, with Tiana Thomas (Waterville, Maine) and Brittney Sorbello (Dover, N.H.) finishing second and third respectively. In a dramatic finish, Thomas finished just tenths of a second behind Delacruz-Grunderson, while Sorbello recorded a time of 22:18.28.
Four rookies led the way for the Saints. Emmanuel was paced by freshman Jacqueline Mosko (Woburn, Mass.), who crossed the line 189th overall (out of 327) with her 6k time of 26:39, running at a pace of 7:09 per mile. Finishing second for EC was Mosko's classmate Megan Rockett (Fall River, Mass.), who ran down a time of 27:38 at 7:24 splits. Emalee Peterson (Yarmouth Port, Mass.) ran third for the Saints in 28:13, while Sophia Santos (Marion, Mass.) finished fourth in 29:03. Sophomore Olivia Wakefield (Easton, Mass.) rounded out the scoring for Emmanuel with her 29:38 finish. Freshman Emily Knowlton (Grafton, Mass.) also made her ECAC debut, finishing in 30 minutes-flat for the Saints.
Both the Emmanuel men and women will race next Saturday, November 15, at the NCAA New England Regional Championships at Williams College. The women's race will begin at 11:00 AM and the men's race will follow at noon.