On a brisk Saturday afternoon, at Mines Falls Park in Nashua, NH the Southern Vermont College Cross Country team ran at the NECC Championships. SVC had its best showings in 2011 at the meet. The Men’s team came across the line in fourth place while the Women finished seventh.
The average of the top five times was the lowest combined time this season for both the Men and Women. The Men scored 88 points, 23 points better than a season ago. Daniel Webster finished third only nine points ahead of the Mountaineers. On the Women’s side the team scored 164 points, 40 points better than 2010. Lesley University won the championship on both sides.
Herson Canta finished the championship meet in 13th place, followed closely by teammate Hesbon Ogeka who finished 14th. Canta and Ogeka continued to make steady improvements throughout the 2011 campaign, as both finished with personal records Saturday afternoon.
On the Women’s side Loni Masiero finished 17th, nine positions better from her 2010 finish. Masiero also finished thirty seconds behind SVC’s all-time top ten list.
The Mountaineers finished their first season under Head Coach Maria Stuber, making tremendous improvement from start to finish. After the meet Stuber said, “I am very proud of how far this group of athletes has come in just 2.5 months. We have seen huge individual improvements and moved up as a team in the conference results. This NECC championships was a great beginning to our programs bright future.”
Stuber’s squads are both very young as the team combined will only graduate two runners. The NCAA regional will be held on November 12th.