WATERFORD, Conn. - The Worcester State men's cross country team finished out their fall campaign with their best race of the season. After recovering from injuries and sickness throughout the season, all ran solid races with two career personal records (PRs), two season PRs, and two freshmen just seconds off their freshman PRs. The team finished in 39th place overall out of 58 colleges competing at the Harkness Park course. In the process, the Lancers were able to surpass several teams that had beaten them earlier in the season and picked up significant ground on several others.
"Everyone was aggressive and went with the flow of the race to have strong efforts this week," said head coach Al Halper. "The field was huge and the leaders were racing to make nationals. I told the guys to be sure to get out well enough to be in the flow and not get pushed to the back of the pack. To their credit, they did exactly what they were told to do. The result was that they were able to see significant improvements this week," added Halper.
"Besides pushing for breakthrough races this week, another one of the goals was to match up well with other schools in the MASCAC conference by class," stated Halper. "The team, mostly all freshman and sophomores, continues to match up well by class with the other MACAC schools. Our hope is that as long as we continue to match up well and can bring in several top level recruits again this year, we can have a legitimate shot at taking home the conference title moving forward."
Freshman Michael Ricci (Peabody, Mass.), in running a PR of 27:28.1 was the second MASCAC freshman and the 11th MASCAC finisher overall this week. Ricci beat several others who have beaten him earlier on in the season.
Freshman Robert Davis (Acton, Mass.) and freshman Christian Vera (Worcester, Mass.) ran 28:25.8 and 28:51.5, respectively. They were also among the top MASCAC freshmen with both just missing their freshmen PRs.
Patrick Scheeler (Wakefield, Mass.) ( 28:57.2), Devin Luce (Milford, Mass.) (29.10.8), and Jeffrey Davis (Old Lyme, Conn.) (29:21.5) finished with season PRs despite battling injuries through three fourths of the season and finished 6th, 7th, and 8th among the MASCAC sophomores in the race. Junior Will Whearty (Wapole, Mass.) was the seventh Lancer finisher and fifth MASCAC junior finisher with a finish time of 30:01.5.
"These athletes have talked a lot about the future of this team," commented Halper. "They are still learning and growing as competitive racers. They have made a lot of progress for what was a short competitive season for many of them. Most importantly, they have shown that they have the commitment, willingness, the desire and the talent to be a top level team. As we move to the indoor campaign and refocus on the track events, they plan to use the upcoming track seasons to work on many of the facets that will contribute and transform each of them, to that next level."
The indoor track & field team will compete next in their first indoor track meet on Dec 5 at the Reggie Lewis Center.