WESTFIELD, Mass. – With the start of the second half of the season and for the first week since the inaugural race in early September, the Worcester State men's cross country team placed 23rd out of 38 teams at the James Early Invitational hosted by Westfield State on Saturday.
The men ran an 8K course at Stanley Park, where they placed ahead of two MASCAC conference opponents, MCLA and Framingham State, with an average time of 29:06.59. They were just 12 points behind MASCAC opponent, Fitchburg State, who placed 22nd in the race with an average time of 29:00.86.
"While most of the team has suffered in their training as a result of interruptions in their training due to sickness and several nagging injuries, some team members continue to impress and improve week to week," said head coach Al Halper.
Leading the way for the Lancers was freshman Michael Ricci (Peabody, Mass.) who placed 55th out of 373 total runners. Ricci crossed the finish line with a time of 27:54.19. Ricci was the second freshman to cross the finish line, missing on the top conference freshman performance by a mere 7.59 seconds. Ricci ran his fastest 8K time of his short career and was also the 15th fastest freshman overall in a field of 38 full teams.
Freshman Christian Vera (Worcester, Mass.) also performed well as he recorded a 28:41.97 time on the course. Coach Al Halper commented, "Both Mike and Christian were aggressive throughout the race and kept pressing forward especially in the woods between 2.5 and 4.5 miles. Coming out of the woods, they were able to maintain their places and put a finishing kick to pass some additional runners."
"As freshman, they are still learning the delicate balance of getting out at the start aggressively, but still running in control so as not to overextend themselves too soon in the race."
Following Ricci and Vera, was freshman Rob Davis (Acton, Mass.) who crossed the line with a 29:06.51 time. "Rob is doing an excellent job for us, despite some difficult circumstances as he has a tough schedule and has to balance his time between cross country and the ROTC," said Halper. "He is focused and a hard worker and his talent will surely take care of the rest."
Also placing for the Lancers was junior Will Whearty (Wapole, Mass.) with a time of 29:40.67, sophomore Patrick Scheeler (Wakefield, Mass.) with a time of 30:09.68, sophomore Dan Brunelle (Dracut, Mass.) with a time of 30:20.67, and sophomore Marques Johnson (West Hartford, Conn.) at 30:56.09.
"The remainder of the Lancer runners also had great improvement today, said Halper. "Whether a better time on this course or a new freshman best, the efforts by these runners today were encouraging as we move forward to the remainder of the season."
Next up the men's cross country team will travel to Springfield, Mass. next weekend to take part in the Western New England Invitational before returning to Worcester for the MASCAC Championships in three weeks.