Meet Results
ONEONTA, NY (September 17, 2010) – Head men's cross country coach
James McCowan can only imagine how strong his team will be a month from now with a full entourage of healthy runners. Despite running without the services of four runners, the Brewers finished 12th of 19 teams at the Oneonta State Airfield Cross Country Invitational on Friday night.
The Brewers were racing on the course that will be used to host the NCAA Atlantic Regional on November 13. In its first 8k race of the young season, Vassar placed runners in the 43rd, 54th, 74th, 82nd and 96th scoring positions in a field with 288 runners. Liberty League stalwart St. Lawrence won the meet with 42 team points.
Vassar finished approximately where McCowan thought the team would place given that three runners – senior
Jonathan Erickson, junior Zack Williams and sophomore Christopher Llyod -- were held out of the race while recovering from injuries. In addition, sophomore
Sam Wagner, who finished second at the Vassar Invitational two weeks ago, dropped out of the Oneonta race at the 2.5 mile mark due to cramping.
“Overall, the guys ran very well,” said McCowan. “Honestly, some guys were strong and others were flat, but this meet was our first real test of the season and it's something we can build off and feel good about given the wide range of competition. I was happy with what we did today.”
One Vassar runner who had a strong performance was junior
Justin Rupert, who finished first for the Brewers in a personal best time of 26:25.9. “Rupert did an excellent job in leading the team,” said McCowan.
Also running a personal best was junior
Will Healy who finished second for Vassar in 26:38. Sophomore
Roni Teich was a close third for Vassar (27:05.2) and junior
Evan Russek was on Teich's heels with a 27:21.3 time. McCowan praised the efforts of freshman
Harry Feigen who was running his first-ever 8k and placed fifth for the Brewers in a 27:40.9 time.
Rounding out Vassar's top seven runners were a pair of freshmen, William Schaeffer and
John Nguyen who ran 28:11.4 and 28:35 times respectively.
“The conditions were ideal and it was the perfect race for us,” McCowan said. “For the men, it is really the tip of the iceberg. To finish 12th place with as many handicaps as we had is very encouraging. It's not a full “A” team for us so we're happy with the effort and have a lot to look forward to.”
Vassar will have a week off in preparation of racing in the Paul Short Invitational at Lehigh University on October 1.