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|  Race Report: Patriot League Cross Country Championships By John Nepolitan October 30, 2004 Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA American Track & Field
Women's Championship (6000 meters) After the first 30 seconds of running the battle for the individual title was
over as Keira Carlstrom stormed away from the field at the start and
completed the rain soaked course with a 1:09 margin of victory over Jen
Schappert of Lehigh University. "I was gonna run my own race today," said Carlstrom. "The next race is
the week that matters at Regionals. Last year I was 3rd there (at
Regionals) so I hope to do better than that. The two girls ahead of me
(at Regionals last year) were seniors. And then at nationals, last year I
was 16th so I hope for better than that." In the team race, after three miles, it looked like American was on its way
to claim that title as well as Zaia Wharton and Kelley Taylor were in the
top 10 and giving their team 12 points to the 19 points for Navy and 23
points for Army, but the racing was far from over. Although they had no
runners in the top five, the Army team packed all five of its scorers within
25 seconds to claim spots 6-8-9-10-11 and post a 10 point victory over
Navy. The key to the Army victory was a strong finish by fifth runner Andrea
Edgar. "My 5th runner, Edgar, had a big race for us today, that was the
key," said Coach Jerry Quiller of Army. For winning the team title Cocah
Quiller was selected Patriot League Coach of the Year. On the strength
of its top three, American was able to hold onto third place in the team
scoring, with Navy taking second. Top 10 Individuals 1. Keira Carlston (American) 21:44.39 Team Scores 1. Army 46 Full women's results can be found at: Men's Championship (8000 meters) The men's race started off much different that the women's, with six
runners forming a pack that would stay together through 6000 meters of
the race. Although there were no major climbs on the course, times
were slowed by wet conditions as a result of a previous day and night of
rain. Eight minutes into the race as the leaders made a sharp right turn
to head down the one major hill, Sean Duffy (American) took a spill, but
was able to bounce right back up and join the front pack that included
three of his teammates. With approximately 2000 meters to go, the four American University
runners began to apply pressure to break the race open. When the
leaders returned to the final straight the trio of Pat Macadie, Brendon
Fennell and Sean Duffy had broken away and cruised down the final
few meters discussing who would take top honors. After having done
most of the leading, Fennell (a sophomore) signaled for senior
defending champion Macadie to claim the top prize. Right behind the
top three was Steve Hallinan to complete a 1-2-3-4 finish for American.
Pat Buford's ninth place finish sealed the easy victory. The remainder of the team battle was very close hrough four runners,
Navy (52 points), Army (51 points) and Lehigh (59 points) were locked
in a dogfight. Maksudul Ali (Navy) was the first fifth-man of the three
teams to cross the line and help earn the Midshipmen the 2nd place
award while Peter Gerboth (Army) out ran Lehigh's fifth runner to help
Army collect the last team award. "The guys from five back did phenomenal," said American University
coach Matt Centrowitz. "We had six people in before most teams had
five. We are only losing two people out of the top ten." As for the
upcoming NCAA Mid Atlantic Regional, "This race gives us a lot of
positive reinforcement and we came out of it with nobody injured and
everything was very positive." Top 10 Individuals 1. Pat Macadie (American) 25:37.00 Team Scores 1. American 19 Full men's results can be found at:
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