By Greg Estabrooks, Staff Writer
This past Saturday was a superb day for a race, as temperatures hovered in the low 70s and humidity stayed low. The Corsairs hosted a field of over 40 colleges and universities from around New England at the 46th running of the UMass Dartmouth Buddy Harris Invitational.
The men competed on the 5-mile circuit of the Bob Dowd course, while the women battled it out on a 5000-meter stint. Both UMass Dartmouth teams are headed by a new coach in Mike Salem.
Prior to hosting this Invitational, the Corsairs competed in the Fitchburg State Invitational on September 1st.
The men’s cross country team came out of the gates hot in their first meet of the season by taking top team honors there while the women’s team also posted a strong 4th place finish.
However, Southern New Hampshire University took home team honors this time at the UMass Dartmouth Invitational, claiming three of the top seven individual spots at the Invitational.
Southern New Hampshire edged out Worcester Polytechnic Institute by 13 points (74-87) in the 16th running of the Buddy Harris Men’s Championship Race.
As for individual performances, Plymouth State senior Sam Brunette took top individual honors, completing the 8K layout in 24:32:02 to barely edge Bridgewater State junior Trevor Wysong by seven seconds.
UMass Dartmouth finished sixth in the final team standings, with 207 points on their home cross country course.
The team was led by sophomore Bruno Pires led the Corsairs with a time of 25:16.65 in the competition, which placed him 9th overall to round out the top 10. Senior Jason Karakaedos finished close behind in 16th.
The team was also aided by finishes of 34th, 72nd, and 76th from freshman Carlos Rivera, freshman Jose LeClerc Rodriguez, and junior George Papoulis respectively.
Together, the Corsairs finished with an average time of 26:15 per runner, securing them that sixth spot out of the 41 schools competing.
Brandeis University took top honors in the women’s race behind senior Emily Byson’s winning time of 17:54.59 top Trinity and Merrimack en route to the team title. The UMass Dartmouth women finished 33rd in the field of 45 with an average time of 21:43 per
runner.
Junior Jessica O’Reilly
led the Corsairs squad with a time of 19:34, earning her a 35th place finish. Sophomore Taylor Walsh and junior Victoria Spitaels finished next for the Corsairs with times of 21:23.02 and 21:19.12, placing them in 157th and 164th respectively. Freshman Alexa Van Voorhis finished 215th, and sophomore Jennifer Jackson in 232nd.
The UMass Dartmouth cross country teams will be back in action on Saturday, September 22nd, when they compete in the Codfish Bowl Invitational at Franklin Park at 10:00 AM.