Fitchburg State Shines At UMass Invitational

Schaeffer and Boudreau pace Falcons cross country team at UMD meet

NORTH DARTMOUTH, Mass. (September 19, 2009) - The Fitchburg State cross country team traveled to North Dartmouth, Mass. today as it competed at the UMass Dartmouth Invitational this afternoon. The Falcons men's team posted a MASCAC best 15th place finish out of 37 teams, while the women placed 35th out of 42.

KYLE SCHAEFFER

Senior Kyle Schaeffer (Hudson, Mass./Hudson) turned in a solid performance for the Fitchburg State men's team, finishing 57th out of 262 total runners with an impressive time of 26:13. Sophomore Chris Kibler (Bath, Maine/Morse) followed Schaeffer into the shoot with a 78th place finish and a time of 26:44, while freshman Pat Lucas (Attleboro, Mass./Bishop Feehan) finished 98th overall with a time of 27:03. Junior Matt Spano (Gardner, Mass./Gardner) aided the Falcons with 108th place finish in a time of 27:20. 

Freshmen Michael Grasela (New Bedford, Mass./New Bedford) and Will Lary (Winchendon, Mass./Murdock) rounded out the men's top six performers with time of 28:50 and 29:01 respectively.

On the women's side, graduate Rachel Boudreau (Westport, Mass./Westport) was stellar for third week in a row, posting a Fitchburg State top performance with a 126th place finish out of 301 runners. Boudreau mustered a team-best time of 20:47 in the women's 5K race.  Freshman Emily Lane (Clinton, Conn./The Morgan School) followed Boudreau with a time of 21:49, while senior Linda Fortunato (Feeding Hills, Mass./Agawam) completed the race in 21:55. Senior Stephanie Jarvis (Hopedale, Mass./Hopedale) also notched a top performance with a time of 22:07.

Fitchburg State will be back in action next Saturday as it participates in the Worcester City Meet starting at 11 a.m.