Just got back to the hotel room from a very competitive and very emotional MAAC Cross Country Championship at ESPN Wide World of Sports. Both of our teams got second-place finishes behind Iona College. In both cases and in both races, we are extremely proud of the result.
--On the men's side, this represents the program's eighth consecutive second-place finish to Iona, who has been nationally ranked in each of those seasons. This Iona team could be the best one ever. I've said it before, I'll say it again: Finishing second to Iona is an honor and we feel very proud of it. This year, it was all the more gratifying considering how stiff the competition for second-place was. As you'll see later when I post the results here, Rider nearly finished ahead of us, Canisius was nipping at our heels and Fairfield continues to impress with there up-and-coming ways led by my good pal John Sagnelli. What earned us the coveted runner-up spot? Some gutsy running over the last mile (several folks told me that at 4 miles we were losing badly in the race for second) and the depth of our 5-6-7 men, whose displacement made the difference. All-MAAC runners were senior Quimes DelaCruz and junior Ken Walshak. Quimes becomes only the third runner in school history to earn All-MAAC (top-15) honors for four consecutive years -- the others were Girma Segni and Will Griffin.
--On the women's side, there was much chatter about how vulnerable Iona was going to be. To be honest, we got caught up in the chatter and felt we could make them sweat a bit. The truth of the matter is, we needed to run a perfect race and they needed to run a flawed race. Neither scenario happened. We ran very well -- I am extremely proud of the effort of our ladies -- and Iona clearly ran their best race of the year. They are not national caliber, but their top several runners are as good and as strong as most teams in our region. If we ran a perfect race today, we still would not have finished ahead of the Gaels. So there is absolutely no disappointment in this finish, just lots of pride. And, as is the case on the men's side, the teams vying for second place are getting better and better with each passing meet and with each passing year. So holding them off and being runner-up to Iona is something of which to be very proud.
Last point, for now: It meant so much to me, personally, to share this emotional and hard-fought meet with our extremely loyal alumni, friends and family who took the effort to make the trip down here to support us. Any time I was so stressed out that I wanted to gag, simply chatting with you all or seeing you all calmed me down, even for a few seconds. In addition, the support and encouragement from Marist Athletic Director Tim Murray and from Father Richard LaMorte is something that we will remember for a long time.
For now, please go to www.maacsports.comwww.maacsports.com to check on the results from today. I am off to enjoy Disney for a few hours. I will post results and other info here on the blog at some point later.
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