Cross Country
Lebanon Valley at the Delaware Valley College Invitational
Men: 8th of 22 (198 points)
Women: 3rd of 18 (78 points)

DOYLESTOWN, Pa. - The LVC men's and women's cross country teams began their 2010 season with a successful run at the Delaware Valley College Invitational on Saturday.

Running on the same course that MAC Championships will be held on October, the women, paced by top-10 finishes by Jenn Cronin and Megan Long, finished third out of 18 teams, and the men came in 8th of 22 as their top three runners finished together.

"Today we had two main goals: to get a good feel for the MAC Championships course, and to get a good controlled effort in," said head coach James O'Brien '07. "I believe that we can walk away from today satisfied."

Despite planning for a controlled run, Cronin turned in a seventh-place 24:31, while Long was behind in ninth in 24:51. A group of newcomers filled out the scoresheet, as Cynthia Adams came in 16th in her debut (25:13) and Kristen Shoop was in 17th (25:13). Alyssa Miller ran a 24:54 31st place to finish LVC's scoring.

Also in the mix was Lauren Johnson (51st, 26:56), Jordan Zelechoski (57th, 27:17), Victoria Broderick (100th, 29:05), Brianna Eroh (104th, 29:13), Kate Anderson (29:13), Tiff Frederick (122nd, 29:44), Rachel Lindt (139th, 31:24), Kelsey Robinson (150th, 32:08), and Katelyn Sharkey (170th, 34:47).

"Despite running well within ourselves the women's team still managed to pull off a solid third place, behind top MAC teams Elizabethtown and Messiah," O'Brien said.  "This is very encouraging.  Some of our new additions ran amazingly in their first race, most notably Cynthia, Kristin, Alyssa and Jordan to fill out our top seven."

For the men, sophomore John Wallace led the men in his first career race, finishing 33rd in 29:29, and Matt Nesmith and Brad Sweigart finished right behind him with both at 29:30.

Gabriel Lincoln-Decusatis was close in 43rd (29:45), and Nick D'Angelo finished the scoring with a 59th-place 30:14.

Also running for the men: Adam Abruzzo (62nd, 30:26), Brian Sheehan (83rd, 31:14), Eliott Bonds (84th, 31:17), Patrick Tierney (86th, 31:19), Colin McKenna (131st, 33:05), Chris Black (134th, 33:16), Alex Talarico (140th, 33:37), and Stephen Goodman (182nd, 37:39).

"The men ran strongly as well, despite a few shoe malfunctions," O'Brien said. "They are going to be a good team this year and I'm confident that they are ready to pop some big races next week at our home invite. They did a good job of hitting the correct effort today."

LVC will host its home invitational at Memorial Lake State Park next Saturday.


Please note: Due to a results error, a web-viewable full list of results was not immediately available Saturday. The times in the article, however, are correct. Please check back later for corrected results.