Men's Results

Women's Results

Siena Cross Country competed in the MAAC Championships for a 26th time Halloween morning, with the women finishing seventh and the men coming in eighth place at Holmdel Park in Holmdel, N.J. Sophomore Shannon Bauer ran the fastest time by a Siena woman in MAAC Championship history to finish 15th overall and earn All-Tournament Team honors in leading the Saints to the program's highest finish in seven years.

"With what we came into the season wanting to accomplish, we are definitely moving forward as a program and reaching our goals," said head coach John Kenworthy. "The trend for both teams has definitely gone up quickly. The MAAC has improved a lot from last year but so have we so while our team rankings may not reflect a major improvement, our individual times and performances have taken a big step forward."

Iona won both the team and individual championships with the Gaels' men capturing their 24th straight title and the women their 11th in a row. The Siena men matched their finish from last year, while the women improved three places from last season and had their highest finish since coming in sixth in 2007.

Junior captain Nick Miller led the Saints in the men's 8K, finishing 26th overall with a time of 26:30.27. Sophomore Nick Cornine was hot on his heels, placing 28th overall with a time of 26:33.95. Sophomore Paolo Fiore also recorded a top-50 finish running in 47th place at 27:02.08.

"We knew that the men's field was going to be a little different than a year ago outside of Iona dominating and Canisius becoming a regional powerhouse," noted Kenworthy. "We knew any team could come in third place and that every team was better than a year ago. I said going in that we'd have to have a very good day to improve on our eighth place finish from a year ago even if we improved individually. Some guys had really good days but we didn't have a perfect day which left us in eighth. We're a much better team than a year ago, but so is the rest of the conference."

It was a banner afternoon for the women's program which placed four runners in the top-50. Bauer and junior captain Christie MacFarlane ran the two fastest MAAC Championship times in program history and freshman Dominica Bleichert ran the fourth fastest.

Bauer completed the women's 5.9K course in 22:14.95, while MacFarlane came in 20th at 22:26.93. Bleichert placed 41st (23:14.48), while sophomore Kelly Pasko rounded out a strong pack coming in 45th at 23:23.31.

"We've had sort of a mantra all season long for the women that it's a new era and we knew that we were a completely different program than a year ago," commented Kenworthy. "I think the women brought a lot of confidence and positive energy and executed great races. Shannon had the biggest performance of the day, earning MAAC All-Tournament honors after finishing 61st at last year's race. She made a humongous improvement and we really got great consistent performances from the next three. Christie never has a bad day and we got big races from Dominica and Kelly who came back strong after suffering an injury in September. I said going in that our women have surprised me too many times this year to count them out and today was surprising how well they came together and I couldn't have expected much more."

Following the race, a total of 17 Saints were named to the MAAC All-Academic Team. To be eligible, a student athlete must have completed two semesters at their institution and possess a 3.20 cumulative grade point average. Senior Nick Grudev, juniors Sean Fogarty and Tom Higgins and sophomores Austin Bitzas and Shane Fiust-Klink were honored on the men's side. On the women's side, all 12 Saints who were eligible were named to the MAAC All-Academic Team. They included seniors Caroline Bertholf, Christine Heaney and Chelsea Needham, juniors Charlotte Brunjes, Kristen Lancto and MacFarlane and sophomores Bauer, Pasko, Annica Penn, Kelly Russo, Sydney Sericolo and Ursula Svoboda.

The Saints continue championship season with the NCAA Northeast Regional on Nov. 14 at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx.