By Jesse Savin, Staff Writer
The Hofstra cross-country team was far away from the storm that hit the area this weekend, taking its talents down to Atlanta, GA for the Colonial Athletic Association Championships on Saturday, October 29. With a week of rest under its belt after taking home nineteenth (men’s) and twenty-ninth (women’s) places at the Penn State National, Hofstra was ready to claim bragging rights for the entire CAA conference.
The week’s rest may not have been enough. Despite another team-leading performance from junior Daniel Rono, the Hofstra men’s squad came in seventh out of the seven teams competing, and the women’s squad finished ninth of ten.
William and Mary’s men’s runners took home their twelfth straight CAA Championship while James Madison’s women’s runners captured first place for the second year straight season.
Rono led the team for the fourth consecutive time this season, placing fourteenth overall in the 8K with a time of 25:53. His time was good enough to cement him as the sixth best runner in Hofstra history at the CAA Championship.
Freshman Jacob Malakoff had Hofstra’s next best finish which was good for thirty-third place overall and clocked in at 27:07, with senior Fred Shattell only ten seconds behind for forty-first.
Freshman Vic Palumbo and freshman John Duffy rounded out the scoring runners with forty-ninth and fifty-fourth place respectively. The Pride men’s squad suffered unexpected setbacks, as three runners did not finish due to injury.
Senior Brittany Rose upped her team-leading finishes to two on the season, placing in sixty-second to lead the women’s runners, clocking in at 24:40 in the women’s 6K. Senior Meghan McCloskey and junior Cara Mattson were hot on her heels, coming in sixty-fifth and sixty-sixth, while sophomore Kristin Mathis took seventy-first. All four were able to pull off times under the 25 minute mark. Freshman Eva Holtermann rounded out the women’s scoring runners with an eighty-second place finish.
Both squads will take another weekend off to refuel, and then look to rebound at the NCAA Division I Northeast Regional Championship in Buffalo on November 12.