Men’s Cross Country Places Fourth At RWU Invitational

BRISTOL, R.I. – The Endicott men's cross country team finished fourth overall out of 11 programs at the Roger Williams University (RWU) Invitational on Saturday afternoon at Colt State Park to open up its 2016 season.

Colby-Sawyer placed first (51 points) by putting all five of its runners inside the top-15, while Wentworth checked in as the runner-up of the meet (76 points) and UMass Dartmouth came in third (88 points).

Endicott (113 points) freshman Will Connelly (Barrington, R.I.) paced the Gulls with a 10th place finish in his collegiate debut with a time of 17:04.98 over the 5-kilometer course. James Dwyer (Berlin, Conn.) followed closely behind in 11th place (17:13.84), while Patrick Finocchiaro (Salem, N.H.) clocked a time of 17:35.77 for 16th overall among 99 runners.

Freshman Adam Germaine (Guilford, Conn.) turned in a time of 18:03.79 (33rd overall), and sophomore Brendan Sasse (Westport, Mass.) rounded out Endicott's top-5 with a time of 18:19.01 (43rd overall).

TOP QUOTE

"There's a lot of work to do but provided it's only five days into the season, but we are pleased with how things panned out. It was also great to see everyone get back into the racing mentality and watch our freshmen runners gain experience against a solid field, which included some of our conference opponents," said Endicott men's cross country head coach Spencer Lange. "Along with that, I was very pleased with how the freshmen conducted themselves today as a group. Will [Connelly] also showed a lot of confidence in his collegiate debut and it showed in the results. Moving forward, the next few weeks will be focused on putting in quality workouts and keeping the end of the season as our top priority for health and level of fitness."

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

• Endicott's top-5 only had a gap of 1:13.23 between its No. 1 and No. 5 runners.
• The Gulls placed three runners in the top-20 and five in the top-50.
• Endicott ranked higher as a team than four Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) opponents (Roger Williams, Salve Regina, Gordon, and Western New England) on the day.

WHAT'S NEXT

Endicott will compete in the University of New England (UNE) Invitational next Saturday at 10:45 a.m. 

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