St. Mary’s Perform Well at NCAA Regional
Bethlehem, Pa. – The St. Mary's College of Maryland men's cross country team wrapped up their inaugural varsity season at the 2009 NCAA Mideast Regional hosted by Muhlenberg College on the Goodman Campus of Lehigh University on Saturday morning.
Saturday's meet was one of eight regional qualifiers for the 2009 NCAA Men's & Women's Cross Country Championships hosted by Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio on November 21. Regional meets hosted by University of Southern Maine, Grinnell College, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, SUNY Geneseo, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Guilford College and Pomona-Pitzer Colleges will also determine the field for the national championships.
The first-year program notched a 33rd-place finish amongst the 51-team field at the regional. Taking the team title was Allegheny College with four top 20 finishes and 59 points. The Allegheny Gators ousted defending regional champion, Carnegie Mellon University, by 10 points.
As the top two teams in the region, Allegheny and Carnegie Mellon now automatically qualify for the NCAA championships. Sixteen at-large selections will be chosen as well from the 24 teams that finish third through fifth at the regionals.
As he has done all season long, freshman Dan Swain (Baltimore, Md./Calvert Hall) paced the Seahawks with his 108th-place finish. Swain ran the program's third fastest time as he posted a 27.27.7, averaging a 5:29 mile. Allegheny's Chris Marker nabbed the individual title as Marker crossed the finish line in 24:54.3 for a 4:59-mile average.
There are also 56 individual qualifiers (seven from each region). Because the individual qualifiers must come from teams that do not qualify, runners can be left “on the bubble” after Saturday's races; they must wait until the at-large team selections are made to know if they made the field for nationals.
The Seahawks averaged 29:28.2 in finishing the 8K course 33rd out of 51 teams. Freshman Nick Pasko (Bel Air, Md./Calvert Hall) was the next top finisher for St. Mary's, claiming a 114th-place finish in 27:30.6, while fellow classmate Quint Frauman (Columbia, Md./Wilde Lake) came in 206th in 29:18.0.
The addition of men's and women's cross country in the spring of 2009 brought St. Mary's athletic offerings to 17 sports.
Affiliated with NCAA Division III, St. Mary's became the ninth and final member institution of the Capital Athletic Conference to sponsor both men's and women's cross country. The Seahawks joined Gallaudet University, Hood College, the University of Mary Washington, Marymount (Va.) University, Salisbury University, Stevenson University, Wesley College, and York (Pa.) College.
Other Seahawk finishers (314 runners): 234. Alexander Gardullo (30:02.5), 280. Chris Fearey (33:02.3), 292. Henry Giovannetti (35:23.4), 293. Drew Gordon (35:23.5)
