By James Mellen, Staff Writer

On Saturday September 22nd the UMass Dartmouth women’s and men’s cross country teams competed in the Codfish Bowl invitational race. Eleven schools statewide were represented by their women’s teams and eight represented by their men’s team.

The women’s half of the meet consisted of an 8 kilometer race, students from Merrimack College placed first, second, and third in the race, winning the meet with a total score of 26. Merrimack Junior Katherine Ferrara placed first in the meet with a time of 19:09. The second and third places were taken by her classmates Tia Foglietta (19:17) and Julia Dempsey (19:32). Fourth place went to Tina Laritz of Boston College (19:35), and fifth to Molly Macqueen of Phillips Academy (19:36).

The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth placed eighth of eleven teams in the women’s 5 kilometer race, with an average time of 21:50.40 and a total time of 1:49:12.00. Corsair’s Junior Jessica O’Reilly placed seventh with a remarkable time of 19:46, earning the team a place in the top 10 finish. Two other Corsairs placed in the top third of the event, with Taylor Walsh placing 26th with a time of 20:55 and Junior Victoria Spitaels placing 42nd with a time of 21:31. The remaining four Corsairs placed within 14 spots of each other, all finishing with times under 25 minutes.

The men’s teams ran an 8-kilometer race, with Merrimack winning the men’s meet as well. Merrimack Freshman TJ Corliss placed first in the race with a time of 26:45, followed by fellow Merrimack student, Senior John Savas with a time of 26:54.

University of Massachusetts Boston Freshman James Cannon placed third with a time of 26:56. Fourth and fifth place went to Colin Fitzpatrick of Merrimack (27:02) and Andrew Fottler of Worcester State (27:17)

The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth men’s cross-country team placed in fourth of eight teams in the meet, with a total time of 2:23:08.00 and an average time of 28:37.60. Five Corsairs placed within the top half of the 8-kilometer race, with Freshman Jose LeClerc-Rodriguez placing 11th with a time of 27:48. Freshmen Martin Mungai and Steve Stromski placed in the top 30 with impressive 22nd and 24th placements respectively.

On Saturday, October 6th both UMass Dartmouth teams will race again at Stanley State Park in the Westfield State James Earley Invitational.

PHOTO COURTESY: CORSAIR ATHLETICS