RANDOLPH CENTER, Vt. – The Southern Vermont College men’s cross country team finished third out of four teams on Saturday at the Three Stallion Invitational, hosted by Vermont Technical College. Mass College of Liberal Arts finished first out of the groups participating.
Leading the way for the Mountaineers was freshman Joshua Ceasar (Bardstown, Ky.) who finished third overall out of 32 male runners on the 8K course with a time of 29:45. That time is good enough for 8th all-time for SVC runners. He was less than a minute behind the first-place finisher, Anthony Cancilla (Pittsfield, Mass.) from MCLA.
The runners enjoyed a nice day for a meet with high winds causing some difficulty. The course, spanning mostly across a golf course, had one significant half-mile climb and a mile of trail running.
Coach Maria Stuber commented that, “Last week was a pretty hard week of training for us. I expected them to look tired, but aside from a few injuries, it didn't show.” Ceasar’s time was a personal best, despite taking a wrong turn near the end which cost him a significant amount of time.
Sophomore captain Victor Velasquez (Los Angeles, Calif.) was just 12 seconds off his fastest time ever, finishing in 12th with a 33:03. Hesbon Ogeka (Windom, Minn.), Kenneth Poteat (Yonkers, N.Y.) and Cameron Curtiss (Milton, Mass.) rounded out the Mountaineers top five on the day with 17th, 20th and 26th place finishes, respectively.
SVC’s next meet comes Saturday, the 22nd, when it hosts the Mountaineer Invitational on the school’s campus. The men will start at approximately 12 p.m.