Cross Country Races to Top Honors at Gordon
Oct. 22, 2007
WENHAM, MA - Kelsey Conn (Batavia, NY/Elba) and Nicole Prokop (Montgomery, MA/Gateway) led the Endicott College women's cross country team to a first place finish at the Gordon Invitational on Saturday.
The Gulls won the meet with 48 points edging out TCC rival Salve Regina University by one point as the Seahawks totaled 49 points. The Blue and Green also bested host Gordon College (50 points) and New England College (127 points.)
Kelsey Conn paced the Gulls with another fourth place finish crossing the line in an impressive 19:50. Prokop was second to the line for EC just 13-seconds behind her teammate finishing in sixth place in 20:03.
The Gulls three, four and five runners have continued to improve week in and week out and Saturday was no different with the Megan McGraw (Georgia, VT/Essex), Jackie Collier (Swampscott, MA/Bishop Fenwick) and Lynn Gallagher (Lowell, MA/Lowell) stepping up to put EC into the top spot.
Endicott had a two minute, 30-second spread from Conn to Gallagher and its top five runners all finished in the top 20. McGraw and Collier finished ninth and tenth in 21:28 and 21:36 respectively. That gave the Gulls just 31-points through their top four runners.
Gallagher sealed the victory for EC edging out Salve Regina's sixth runner by three seconds and finishing 18th in 22:20. Without Gallagher out-sprinted SRU's sixth runner the Gulls would have finished second by a point.
The win was a big one for Endicott as The Commonwealth Coast Conference Championship is only a week away. The Blue and Green have themselves setup to run well and be in the mix for a TCCC Title.
On the men's side Ryan Darmody (Portsmouth, RI/Portsmouth) raced to a tenth place finish to lead the men's cross country team to a third place finish.
Darmody finished 10th in a time of 30:38, the best finish of his career, pacing EC to its best finish as a team. The Gulls 92 points put them third behind Newbury College (63 points) and team champion Gordon College (24 points).
The key to the Gulls success on Saturday was the 1:15 spread between the teams top five runners. The Gulls two through five runners' finished just 16-seconds apart with Brendan Mitchell (Chelmsford, MA/Chelmsford) at the front of the pack finishing in 20th place and covering the 8,000-meter course in 31:39. Steve Bouchard (Saratoga, NY/Saratoga) was right on Mitchell's heels crossing the line in 21st in 32:01.
Sam Turner (Portland, ME/Deering) and Michael Macisso (Portland, ME/Portland) rounded out the scoring for Endicott finishing 22nd and 23rd in 32:12 and 32:15 respectively. Endicott also bested TCCC rivals Salve Regina (4th, 125 points) and New England College (5th, 133) en route to the third place finish.
First-year head coach Sharyn Longo has the Gulls peaking at the right time as The Commonwealth Coast Conference Championship is the next meet on the schedule for the Blue and Green. Endicott heads to Biddeford, ME on Saturday for the conference championship meet starting at noon.