University of Richmond Athletics
Women's Cross Country Takes Third; Men Finish Fifth At Atlantic 10 Championships
10/29/2005 | Cross Country
Oct. 29, 2005
Results
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - The University of Richmond women's cross country team placed third, while senior John Ciccarelli (South Bury, Conn.) took third to lead the men's team to a fifth-place finish at the 2005 Atlantic 10 Men's Cross Country Championship at Belmont Plateau.
Duquesne won the men's race, stopping La Salle's streak of championships at four-straight. La Salle's women's team won its fourth title in the last five years - Richmond won the 2003 championship, while Charlotte took second and the Spiders were one point back in third place.
Ciccarelli, who won the individual championship at last year's conference meet, bested the previous course record at Belmont Plateau by 3.7 seconds, but La Salle's Sean Quigley and Saint Joseph's Teddy Meyers also beat the course record. Quigley shattered the course record of 24:47 by finishing the 8K in 24:28.9, the third-fastest mark in the 28-year history of the Atlantic 10 Men's Championship.
Meyers finished second in a time of 24:37.2 and Ciccarelli followed in third place in 24:43.3.
"This was a great race for John," Richmond men's coach Steve Taylor said. "He beat the course record at a course that has been around for over 30 years, but he ends up getting third. John ran tremendously well, he led most of the race, but Quigley and Meyers got a little bit of lead and he couldn't reel them in."
 Freshman Katie Van Horn finished eighth in the women's race Saturday.  |
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Ciccarelli earned all-conference honors for the second year in a row, while a pair of Richmond women's runners also earned All-Atlantic 10 honors. Freshman Katie Van Horn (Glendora, N.J.) finished eighth, completing the 5K race in 18:26.7. She was the second freshman to cross the finish line, coming just two seconds behind Charlotte's Aja Jackson, who was named the meet's Most Outstanding Rookie. Spider sophomore Kylee Schuler (Chambersburg, Pa.) finished right on Van Horn's heels in ninth place in the same time of 18:26.7.
The Richmond women were just one point behind second place Charlotte and that was with junior Amanda Russell (North Bay, Ontario), who finished third overall last year, hindered by an injury.
"It's a little hard to swallow," Richmond women's coach Lori Taylor said. "La Salle was real tough, we knew we were going to have to have a great day to beat them, but it's a little disappointing to finish third by one point.
After the top-10 finishes by Van Horn and Schuler, senior Nicole Kurtain was the third Spider to cross the finish line, taking 23rd in 19:01.8.
"Katie and Kylee had great races, those are really good times on this course," Lori Taylor said. "Nicole is coming off an injury, so that is a great finish for her that really made the difference over the last three quarters of the race, keeping us in third ahead of Rhode Island."
Russell, who was the first Richmond runner to finish in each race she competed in this fall, was held back by an injury over the last few weeks, missing the Arkansas Chile Pepper Festival and finishing 29th in 19:15.3 on Saturday. "Amanda we've been nursing for about three weeks now," Lori Taylor said. "She was able to finish the race, it's a little disappointing for her."
Freshman Mary Bertram (Salisbury, N.C.) rounded out Richmond's scoring in the women's race with a 38th-place finish in a time of 19:29.7. Sophomore Kate Merrill (Durham, N.C.) and sophomore Shelby Faircloth (Centennial, Colo.) finished sixth and seventh, respectively. Merril took 40th in a time of 19:33.0 and Faircloth was 45th in 10:36.7.
On the men's side, Richmond was ranked sixth entering the race, but finished fifth.
"We ran quite well today," Steve Taylor said. "We had some very good performances."
On the men's side, sophomore Jonathan Molz (East Northport, N.Y.) was the second Spider to cross the finish line in a time of 26:02.3 to take 30th. Sophomore Peter Norquist (Shamong, N.J.) followed in 33rd place in 26:08.3, while freshman Sean McKinney (Downington, Pa.) placed 44th in 26:28.8 and sophomore Hunter Willis (Mt. Pleasant, S.C.) was 45th in 26:28.8.
Freshman Mike Gaubinger (Northampton, Mass.) finished 71st in 27:10.0 and sophomore Mike Stubbs (Newington, Conn.) followed in 73rd in 27:15.1.
