For the second-straight year the College of Staten Island men’s cross-country team represented at the NCAA Division III Atlantic Region Championship Meet as CUNYAC Champions, and CSI raced in with a 37th place finish in the 41-team event that took place this morning at Genesee Valley Park, hosted by the University of Rochester. The Dolphins boasted three freshmen runners in the meet, with many of the troop putting in valued performances.
St. Lawrence won the meet overall with a point total of just 63, followed by SUNY-Geneseo at 115, and SUNY-Cortland with 128. CSI would finish with 1,094. The Dolphins finished second amongst the CUNYAC contingent, behind John Jay and in front of City College of New York.
Over 280 runners were featured in the race. For the second time this season, it was freshman Liam McMunn that paced CSI, leading the way for the Dolphins with a time of 28:35, his second fastest 8k time of the season and good for 181st place. He was followed by fellow frosh Andrew Scharf, who was 20 seconds behind McMunn at 28:55 and finishing 195th overall in the field. CSI’s third scorer was Kenneth Morella, who flew in at a time of 29:41, also his second-fastest this season and good for 227th overall. Coming in 244th was Justin Mills with a solid time of 30:16, and rounding out the scoring was freshman Matthew Day with a time of 31:37.
Not scoring for the Dolphins but participating was Samuel Obisanya with a time of 32:00 even, and Josh Ribaudo at 32:51. The 37th place finish for the Dolphins was a solid one for Head Coach Rob Russo and his troops, but certainly will be looked at as something to build off of.
“It was much colder than we expected this morning and I think it affected our race time,” he said. “Still, the meet went well, our guys ran strong, and this experience was great for us. It gives us a taste of how competitive this meet is and what we need to work towards for the future.”
CSI is on the heels of its second consecutive CUNYAC Championship, besting John Jay College by a mere six points.
