Sept. 29, 2007

Men's Results

Women's Results

FAIRFIELD, Conn. (September 29, 2007) - For the second-straight year, the Sacred Heart men's and women's cross country teams took home the team titles at the Fairfield University Invitational. Freshman Dana Troy (Lebanon, CT) became the fifth Pioneer to win the running of the Victor F. Leeber, S.J. Invitational, picking-up her first career victory in just her third collegiate race.

The Pioneer women held off a field featuring six other teams, scoring 39 team points to pick-up their fourth-consecutive team title at the event and the ninth in the past 11 years. SHU finished up just three points in front of the Fordham Rams (42) in second.

The SHU men also held off Fordham, posting a 32 to 31 win in the seven-team field. Juniors John Kenworthy (Gloversville, NJ) and Luis German (Southampton, NY) led the way with second and third place finishes respectively.

"What a couple of nail biters," stated head coach Christian Morrison. "Fordham posed a significant challenge for both of our teams, but the kids hung in there, showed a lot of heart, and were able scrape out the victories."

"Today was a great day for our program. We're progressing nicely towards the championship portion of our season, and we're really looking forward to the New England meet next weekend."

Troy broke the tape with a time of 19:28.17 for her first ever win and top-five finish. Fellow freshman Kimberly DeLoreto (Hillsdale, NJ) was right behind Troy in second with a time of 19:36.31 for her first career top-five.

Sophomore Sarah Tencza (Succasunna, NJ) recorded her third-career top-10 finish coming in sixth with a time of 20:10.49. Freshman Samantha Troy (Lebanon, CT), who finished 13th in the race, passed four other runners in the last 300 meters clocking in at 21:00.38 to secure the Pioneer's three-point margin of victory.

Rounding out the top-seven was junior Mary Coakley (Plattsburgh, NY) in 17th (21:08.56), sophomore Theresa Campbell (Colonia, NJ) in 19th (21:22.79) and freshman Erin McPherson (Marlborough, MA) in 24th (21:50.71).

For the men, Kenworthy finished just over two seconds shy of the top-spot, running the 5K course in 27:19.80, his second career top-five finish. German was just on his heels finishing third in 27:22.90, his first career top-five.

Junior David Jones (Ballston Lake, NY) and sophomore Ryan Murdoch (Niantic, CT) also turned in top-10 afternoons, finishing fifth and sixth respectively. Jones ran the course in 27:27.80 for his third career top-five finish. Murdoch clocked in at 27:49.80 for his second career top-10.

The rest of SHU's top-seven runners looked like junior Joseph Palma (Gladstone, NJ) in 15th (28:39.20), freshman Steven Pawlowski (Middleton, MA) in 17th (28:52.50) and freshman Eric Place (Wareham, MA) in 21st (29:03.20).