The Stony Brook Seawolves competed in the Paddy Doyle Iona Meet of Champions on Saturday at Van Cortlandt. The Men and Women placed two runners in the top ten and one more in the top twenty while facing perennial powerhouses Penn State, Kentucky, Providence, Cornell, and Boston College. The race showcased a fresh face among the Seawolves, highly touted freshman Hayley Green, who placed third in a field of 224 runners.
The women’s cross country team traveled to Van Cortlandt Park with one thing on their mind, to make an impression in the NCAA Cross Country field. The Seawolves were ranked last week 26th in the nation and third in the Northeast region. Yet they produced an unflattering finish. One runner placed in the top ten, followed by the next Seawolf in 81st place. Hayley Green, a freshman from Wellington, New Zealand, finished the course with a time of 22:02.4, eight seconds behind the first place finisher from Penn State. This was Green’s highest finish of this young season. The next runner to cross the finish from Stony Brook was Kristal Conklin, a freshman from Middletown, New York. Conklin placed 81st with a time of 24:05.4. Overall, the Seawolves placed 16th out of 21 teams.
The men’s team fared just as well, with Tim Hodge, a junior from Tawa, New Zealand, finishing in eighth place with a time of 24:59.5. His time was thirty-five seconds slower than the top finisher from Southern Utah University. Fifteen seconds later, junior Alex Felce finished with a time of 25:14.6, good enough for 18th place. The Seawolves did not place another runner until 59th place, when Daire Bermingham, a junior from Portmarnock, Ireland, crossed the finish line with a time of 25:54.8, almost a minute and a half behind the first place leader. The men’s team overall placed 12th out of 26 teams that included the University of Michigan, Navy, and Lehigh.
The men’s and women’s cross country team will look to rebound with a big showing on October 3rd. The women will be traveling to Notre Dame to compete in the Notre Dame Invitational, while the men will be competing in the Paul Short Invitational.
