Sept. 19, 2010
Final Stats
The Siena women's cross country team won a thrilling meet at NJIT Sunday. Chrissy Del Santo held off two Hofstra runners with about 400 meters to go, providing the difference in a very close finish on the women's side.
"I was very pleased with how the meet went on the women's side today," Head Coach Alison Wade said. "We had our first truly good week of practice this past week, and I told them that if they could step it up one more notch beyond the way we were practicing this week, we'd have a shot at winning the meet. The race was about as close as it could get between Hofstra and us--it was a really good battle."
Brina Seguine, Sam D'Amato, and Meghan Yi also had great races in front of Del Santo, to secure the win. Seguine suffered a quad and IT band injury over the summer and has had to limit her training as a result, but you would never have known it from watching her season opener today.
D'Amato was running her first-ever 6k and she really stepped up. Yi got really serious about her training this summer, according to Wade, and is running at a completely different level than last year. "She is an inspiration to everyone on the team," Wade said. Lia Gizzarelli struggled a bit, but she was able to hang on to the fifth spot and help Siena win the meet.
On the men's side, the Saints continue to progress each week. They defeated LIU-Brooklyn and Saint Peter's and fell to host NJIT. Siena ran without two of its top runners today (Ian Donnelly and Mike Thomas), but still had its best showing of the season.
"It's not always easy to compare times and places from one week to the next, but it's clear to me that we're collectively getting better each week," Wade said. "There's a very steep learning curve for freshmen who are adjusting to the 8k distance (up from the 5k they ran in high school), so it's great that our freshmen are doing as well as they are."
Upperclassmen Davin Piispanen, David Ellsworth, and John Farley all had good races Sunday. Though the course has been modified a bit since last year, and is possibly now a little slower, they respectively averaged 77, 47, and 70 seconds faster than their best times on this course last year.
Siena's top five today, even without some key runners, averaged 51 seconds faster per person than on a very similar course at the MAAC Championships last year. The women's top five averaged 71 seconds faster per person than at the MAACs last year.
"We are making significant progress as a team, and the attitudes are great this year, which is all I can ask for," Wade said.
