Grafton, MA --- The Worcester State College Men's Cross Country season began Saturday at the Tufts Jumbo Invite on the challenging Tufts Grafton Farm Course. Despite a solid effort by everyone, the Lancers finished this tough race knowing that they have much work to do as the season progresses. They finished in 9th place as a team. The team, that lost four of their top seven from a year ago, will be looking to increase their intensity of training as they continue to move forward during the season.
Leading the way as he did all of last year was Senior Forest Wilber. Wilber finished 20th overall in a time of 28:27.94, a time and place not indicative of his talents. Following Wilber was senior Chris Mancuso, who finished 56th overall. Chris, too, looks to return to last year's form with a little more training over the next few weeks. Senior Andrew Rossi was running third for the team but ran just 3 miles of the five mile race before having to drop out. However, he will be a factor as the season progresses.
Freshman Eric Thulin, who finished 74th overall, ran a solid race to finish as the third Lancer in his first official collegiate race at 8K. Following right behind, was sophomore RJ Stahelski in 75th place. Stahelski, who came in this fall a little undertrained, continues to get stronger each week and should continue to play an important role during this season. Rounding out the top five at Tufts was junior Norman Everett, who continues to improve each year and though he had a tough race on this course, will help greatly in future meets.
Hard work, determination and drive will be the focus as the team gets ready for the UMass Dartmouth Invite next week and despite the slow start, the Lancers expect to have a good race next week.
Release Courtsy of Al Halper --- Men's Cross Country Coach