The men’s and women’s cross country teams traveled to Galloway, NJ, on September 14 to compete at the Osprey Invitational. The two teams made way for a hopeful season with this meet, where the men’s team placed fourth, and the women’s team placed fifth. These races really tested the teams’ skills as it was their first time this season running their championship distances of 8k for men and 6k for women after opening with a 3k race at Vassar College.
During the 8k event for the men, the Ducks tallied 140 team points, making them the third-highest Division III school right behind The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) with 85 points and Moravian University with 34 points. The top finisher for Stevens was graduate student Liam Concannon with a time of 25:24.3, just missing a personal record by .3 seconds, landing him ninth place. Juniors Caleb Stephen and Mick Barbi finished back to back with times of 26:53.86 and 26:55.2 respectively. Stephen crossed with 34th place, and Barbi finished at 35th. Rounding out the scorers was Bryan Onody with a time of 27:05.82. This meet marked personal best times in the 8k for Stephen, Barbi, and Onody. Stevens also had four runners who ran in the Open Run event, with first-years Cillian Griffin, Kevin Medrow, Matt Hodorowski, and Luke Giangrande running.
During the 6k event, the women’s team totaled 157 team points making them the fourth-highest Division III school behind Moravian University with 127 points, Stockton University with 105 points, and TCNJ with 88 points. The top finisher for the Ducks was first-year Isabella Gabay with a 12th-place time of 23:54.56, making her the top finisher in her first two collegiate meets. Sophomore Kaitlyn Adams landed 39th place, just barely missing 25 minutes with a time of 25:00.3, placing a new personal best in the 6k, passing her previous best placed at the Rowan Interregional Border Battle last October. Along with Gabay making her 6k debut, so did graduate student Nina Burden, first-years Madeline Bender, Anya Sadowski, Catherine Bondi, and sophomore Kate Cen.
Head coach John Kolibab states that even though there is room for improvement, and the cleanest races are never early in the year, “an opener this strong is tremendously encouraging.” He adds, “This is the most excited I’ve ever been about a cross country group after a first meet. They’re capable of some incredible achievements this year.”
The Ducks will be seen again in Mechanicsburg, PA at Messiah University on September 28 for the Messiah Invitational. The women’s team starts at 10:30 a.m. and the men’s team starts at 11:15 a.m.
