2008 Woodie Awards
Cross country dominates field at Fordham Invitational
Clif Duquette '08
Issue date: 9/19/07 Section: Sports
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This past weekend, the Hawks flew to Van Cortlandt Park in New York City to participate in the Ram Invitational, hosted by Fordham. The men's cross country team, led by many of the younger runners, was hoping to put forth a solid performance following their Haverford time trials two weekends ago.
They did exactly what they expected.
Coasting through 65 degree temperatures over gravel, under trees, and through the woods, the Crimson and Gray indeed did exactly what they wanted by finishing first out of nine teams in the 8K race. Totaling 23 points overall, St. Joe's outperformed Columbia by 18 points to capture the men's title.
Three Hawks highlighted the team's efforts, quickly snatching three of the top four spots to put St. Joe's ahead for good. Kyle Murray, '09, was the first Hawk to finish, landing in a time of 26:12, good for second place overall out of 69 runners. He was actually only two seconds behind the leading finisher, Ryan Hays of Columbia.
Following Murray in third was Brian Guterl, '11, who put on an impressive performance in one of his first collegiate races by finishing in 26:48. Jonathan Sclafani, '10, flew right behind Guterl in fourth place with a finishing time of 26:51.
Jim Jennings, '10, coming off an impressive race at the Haverford time trials in which he was the team's first finisher, came back with another strong effort at Van Cortlandt Park. This time, with more runners participating for the Hawks, he finished fourth on the team and sixth overall with a time of 27:05. Brendan Kearney, '09, rounded out the team scoring by finishing in 27:12, good for eighth place.
While the Hawks did finish ahead of all the other teams, they were not surprised-anything less would have been below what they had expected, according to Kearney.
"When we looked at the other teams that we knew would be there, we didn't think they were where we were," said Kearney. "Just by looking at the history of the programs and some of their previous race results, we felt that we could definitely come out on top."
They did exactly what they expected.
Coasting through 65 degree temperatures over gravel, under trees, and through the woods, the Crimson and Gray indeed did exactly what they wanted by finishing first out of nine teams in the 8K race. Totaling 23 points overall, St. Joe's outperformed Columbia by 18 points to capture the men's title.
Three Hawks highlighted the team's efforts, quickly snatching three of the top four spots to put St. Joe's ahead for good. Kyle Murray, '09, was the first Hawk to finish, landing in a time of 26:12, good for second place overall out of 69 runners. He was actually only two seconds behind the leading finisher, Ryan Hays of Columbia.
Following Murray in third was Brian Guterl, '11, who put on an impressive performance in one of his first collegiate races by finishing in 26:48. Jonathan Sclafani, '10, flew right behind Guterl in fourth place with a finishing time of 26:51.
Jim Jennings, '10, coming off an impressive race at the Haverford time trials in which he was the team's first finisher, came back with another strong effort at Van Cortlandt Park. This time, with more runners participating for the Hawks, he finished fourth on the team and sixth overall with a time of 27:05. Brendan Kearney, '09, rounded out the team scoring by finishing in 27:12, good for eighth place.
While the Hawks did finish ahead of all the other teams, they were not surprised-anything less would have been below what they had expected, according to Kearney.
"When we looked at the other teams that we knew would be there, we didn't think they were where we were," said Kearney. "Just by looking at the history of the programs and some of their previous race results, we felt that we could definitely come out on top."
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