Fitchburg State Opens At Keene State Invitational

Men place third with 85 points; Women finish fourth with 103 points

KEENE, N.H. (August 30, 2014) – The Fitchburg State men's and women's cross country team opened up the 2014 season this afternoon, visiting Keene State College for its annual Alumni Invitational.

The women placed fourth overall with 103 points, while the men's team placed third a total of 85 points on the afternoon. On the men's side, sophomore Brian Amaral (Tewksbury, Mass.) earned the top finish for the men, placing ninth overall with a time of 16:47, while classmate Matthew Cuomo (Carlisle, Mass.) and newcomer Jake Hastings (Phillipston, Mass.) placed 15th and 16th overall, turning in times of 17:15 and 17:17 respectively. Junior Timothy Allen (Methuen, Mass.) followed in 18th place with a time of 17:52.30, while freshman Daniel Fournier (Winchendon, Mass.) registered a time of 18:27. Rounding out the top eight for the Falcons were freshman Sean Beverly (Lunenburg, Mass.), senior Michael Martin (Gardner, Mass.) and freshman Alex Napolitan (Centerville, Mass.), who turned in solid times of 18:29, 18:52 and 19:14 respectively over the 5K layout.     

For the women, freshman Nicole Gaffney (Paxton, Mass.) led the way, placing 11th overall with time of 12:34. Senior Jenae Harrison (Sioux Falls, S.D) notched a time of 13:21 to place 15th, while junior Libby Ward (Ashby, Mass.) and sophomore Kelly McCarthy (Assonet, Mass.) earned times of 13:50 and 14:19 to place 22nd and 26th respectively. Junior Jessica Mangan (Everett, Mass.) placed 29th with a time of 14:44, while newcomer Bridget Diggins (Westhampton, Mass.) and sophomore Grace Morrissey (Millis, Mass.) rounded out the top seven for the ladies with times of 15:10 and 15:53 over the two mile course.

Fitchburg State will be back in action next Saturday as it hosts its annual Jim Sheehan Memorial Alumni Meet at the Doyle Conservation Center in Leominster at 11 a.m.