Sacred Heart
102nd Annual New England Cross Country Championships
Pioneers Compete at New England Cross Country Championships
10/11/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Cross Country
BOSTON – The Sacred Heart University men's cross country team traveled to Boston on Saturday afternoon to compete in the 102nd Annual New England Cross Country Championships.
"The team standings may not show it, but our men performed well today," said head coach Christian Morrison. "With six freshmen competing in the varsity race for us, we fielded the youngest team in the meet. Our future looks bright with this group."
The Pioneer men were led by freshman Trevor Guerrera for the fourth straight meet, as he finished 154th with a time of 26:12.72. He improved on his 8k personal best of 27:30, and recorded the fastest time ever by a SHU freshman on the Franklin Park course. Christopher Connelly set the previous best at the 2009 New England meet, as he ran the course in 26:27. With the time, Guerrera also move into fourth place for the fastest 8k time by a Sacred Heart freshman.
Also cracking the top 200 was fellow freshman Timothy Loehner, whose time of 26:57.77 put him in 198th. He also improved on his 8k personal best of 28:26, and moved into 14th place on SHU's all-time list for fastest 8k by a freshman.
Junior Jacob Ustjanauskas was the only upperclassman in the top seven as he finished 232nd, running a season best 27:52.04. Rounding out the top seven for the Pioneers were four freshmen who all ran their personal best in the 8k. Jake Tavernite and Joseph Klein both improved their personal best by over a minute as they finished one second apart in 26:56 and 27:57 to finish 233rd and 236th, respectively. Andrew Handfield finished 243rd in 28:24 and Bryan Reilly ran the course in 28:29 to place 246th.
Yet another freshman, Michael Giambrone, ran the third fastest time for the Pioneers on the day. He placed 149th in the JV race with a time of 27:49.
As a team, the men finished in 36th place with 1,053 points. Providence and Brown shared the title as both teams finished with 72 points.
Sacred Heart will compete on back-to-back weekends for the first time this season as they participate in the Princeton Invitational next Saturday. The event will be held at West Windsor Fields in Princeton, N.J. and is scheduled to begin at 10:30 am.
Players Mentioned
