Falcons Continue Strong Start at NEC
FITCHBURG, Mass. - Fitchburg State University cross country continued their strong start to the 2015 campaign at the Mayflower Invitational hosted by New England College on Sunday afternoon. The men's team won their second meet in a row, as they took top team honors with 30 points, while the women also had a strong showing as runner-up in second place with 47 points.
Jake Hastings paced the Falcons with a second place finish - a career best - with a finish time of 16:30, while coming in fourth (16:50) and fifth (16:51) respectively were brothers Joseph Darrigo and Anthony Darrigo. Matthew Cuomo crossed the line in eighth at 17:28, while Michael Martin had a personal best 17:46 time, which was good for 11th.
Rounding out the Green & Gold top seven were Timothy Allen (17:51) in 13th and Liam Eble at 18:10 (17th).
Nicole Gaffney continued her strong start to the season with a fifth place finish, crossing the line at 20:17, while Sadie Zbikowski finished at 21:50 in 11th. Jessica Mangan (22:31), Casey Taylor (22:32), and Shawna Ryan (22:41) finished consecutive in 14th, 15th and 16th respectively.
Finishing in 23rd and 35th to round out the top seven finishers were Holly Wentworth at 23:37 and Cassie Lavallee with a finish time of 25:33.
Fitchburg State will return to action on Saturday, Sept. 19 at UMass Dartmouth.