Oct. 31, 2009
PHILADELPHIA - Tyler Jones, Caitlin Storbeck and Samantha Gallagher earned All-Conference honors on Saturday to lead the La Salle cross country teams at the Atlantic 10 Championship in St. Louis, MO. The men's squad finished fourth in the team standings, and the women finished fifth.
The men accumulated 119 points for the fourth place finish, one better than predicted in preseason voting. Saint Joseph's won the team title with 56 points, followed by Massachusetts (67) and Dayton (70). The Explorers edged out Temple (120) by one point. Dayton's Chris Lemon captured the individual title with a time of 26:13.3
The 8K races at Forest Park on Saturday featured slower-than-normal times as St. Louis has seen rain in past few days and the course was extremely muddy.
Jones finished 13th overall out of 141 runners in picking up the first all-conference accolades of his career. He crossed the finish line in 27:12.0.
The second Explorer to finish was senior Trevon Rainford, who clocked a 27:23.6 to finish 20th overall. Dave Hausherr and Sean Ward were not far behind as they placed 26th and 27th, respectively, with times of 27:43.6 and 27:44.0.
Rounding out the scoring for La Salle was: Sean Mallon (27:59.2; 33rd), Alfredo Santana (27:59.3; 34th) and Tom Pannulla (28:05.1; 38th).
The Explorer women earned fifth place in the team standings, fulfilling the preseason prediction. Storbeck finished 14th and Gallagher 15th to earn their first all-conference nods.
Storbeck clocked a 20:32.3 in the 5K race with Gallagher just behind in 20:34.1. Meghan Lutz was the third Explorer on Saturday as she clocked a 20:53.8 for 29th place.
Meghan McGlinchey (21:02.7; 33rd), Colleen Boland (21:37.2; 63rd), Maureen Benner (21:59.9; 77th) and Kellilyn Fierras (22:47.5; 104th)
Dayton captured the women's title, followed by Charlotte, Massachusetts and Duquesne. George Washington's Megan Hogan, last year's runner-up, won the individual title with a time of 18:37.8 - nearly a minute faster than runner-up Amanda Goetschius of Charlotte.
The Explorers next head to the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regionals on Nov. 14th at the University of Maryland - Eastern Shore campus in Princess Anne, MD.
