WESTFIELD, Mass. – A fall season of hard work for the Southern Vermont College cross country teams culminated for three Mountaineer women harriers and five male runners on Saturday at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) New England Regional Championship, hosted by Westfield State University in Westfield, Mass.
367 women from over 50 squads competed in ideal running weather with the temperature around 55 degrees, the sun out and hardly any wind. Massachusetts Institute of Technology placed first as a team, and Amherst College senior Keri Lambert (Amherst, Mass.) crossed the line first in 20:48.94. On the men's side, Middlebury College was first out of the 50 placing teams, while Bowdoin College junior Cody Horowitz (Stow, Mass.) led the 351-runner field at 24:51.36.
Southern Vermont female freshman and All-New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) First Team member Alice Lala (Biddesford, Maine) finished the 6K first for the Mountaineers with a time of 25:17.05. With that time, she lands on the SVC all-time top five list at second, behind only Kathleen Newton who ran the 2002 NCAA Regional in 24:09. Lala's first five kilometers were split at a personal-best rate, and she was the third NECC runner to finish.
Freshman Haley Omasta (Danbury, Conn.), a member of the All-NECC Second Team, came in at 26:51.77, putting her third on the all-time SVC 6K list. Senior captain Loni Masiero (Wallkill, N.Y.) matched her 2011 NCAA Regional time of 29:18, now the 6th-best time for a Mountaineer on a longer course. She passed handfuls of runners in the last mile during her final race in an SVC uniform.
"Today was a great way to finish our season," said SVC head coach Maria Stuber. "It's fun for Coach Billy [Obenauer] and I to see which athletes are fueled by the challenge and excitement of a higher level of competition."
All-New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) First Team member and freshman Joshua Ceasar (Bardstown, Ky.) crossed first for the Mountaineers on the men's side with a time of 28:03.30 despite battling injury and illness over the last week. "Considering the circumstances," said Stuber, "this was a great race for him."
Sophomore captain and All-NECC Second Team member Victor Velazquez (Los Angeles, Calif.) ran a personal-best 30:07.15, taking 15 seconds off his previous best time which came earlier in the season at the Western New England Golden Bear Invitational. That bumps him up to 9th on the all-time SVC 8K list. He finished the Regional 58 places better than he did in the 2011 Championship.
Recovering from an injury, sophomore Hesbon Ogeka (Windom, Minn.) finished at 31:32.07, not far off of his personal-best time of 31:15.69. Freshman Cameron Curtiss (Milton, Vt.) took almost a minute off his personal-record, finishing at 33:06.35. Over the course of the season, Curtiss took nearly nine minutes off his times. Freshman Kenneth Poteat (Yonkers, N.Y.) rounded out the Mountaineer squad, coming in at 34:09.29.
It will be nice to have a break from competing now," said Stuber, "but I cannot wait to see what some of these young athletes will be able to do in 2013 after a full year of training at the college level."