The College of Staten Island men’s and women’s cross-country teams got in an effective run this weekend in their final race before the CUNYAC Championship Meet, performing at Sunken Meadow Park in Long Island at part of the St. Joseph’s College (LI) Invitational.  The CSI women came in 23rd out of 29 total teams in the 5k meet, while the men scored an 11th-place finish out of 28 teams in their 8k segment.

In the women’s race, CSI was paced by Victoria Barry, who raced in at a time of 24:54.75, leading all Dolphins and placing 87th overall out of 230 racers.  She was followed by Frances Gonzalez’s time of 25:01.50, just four places behind Barry.  Lisa Galasso was next to cross, placing in at 25:52.94, and from there it was Tetiana Vasyleva at 32:31.32 and Carissa Mazzeo at 33:24.75.

CSI was missing many of its normal contingent of runners, as they are focused now on performing at their best for the CUNYAC Championship Meet at Van Cortlandt Park this coming Sunday, a 6k event.  Winning the meet outright were the hosts of St. Joseph’s who scored 51 points, beating out Bloomfield College at 58 points and Monroe College at 150.  CSI placed second of four CUNYAC schools, behind John Jay College and ahead of both Brooklyn College and York College.

On the men’s side, CSI finished a respectable 11th despite missing key runner Justin Mills.  CSI’s Andrew Scharf led all Dolphins runners as he has done several times this season, coming in 31st overall in the field of 224 overall with a time of 30 minutes flat.  Liam McMunn was in 50 seconds later, good for 51st place, while Kenneth Morella was five places behind at 30:58.  Samuel Obisanya came in at 32:56, good for 104th, while Matthew Day was just a few beats behind, rounding out the scorers with a race time of 33:07.  CSI also brought across Joshua Ribaudo (34:18), Khaled Halwani (35:34), Zain Ali (35:59), and Patrick Kettyle (39:23).

CSI was first among CUNYAC schools, just six points ahead of John Jay College.  Monroe won the meet with 59 points, followed by the US Merchant Marine Academy with 99 points and Queens College with 149.

Up next for the men is also the CUNYAC Championship this coming Sunday at 10:30am at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx.  CSI will be defending its title, as they won their first-ever CUNYAC Championship on the same course in 2013, finishing just one point better than John Jay.