Atlantic 10 Championship Information

PHILADELPHIA – In its most anticipated race of the year, the La Salle men's cross country team will look to repeat as Atlantic 10 champions on Saturday at the familiar Belmont Plateau in Fairmont Park. The men's race will begin at 10:45 a.m.

Scouting the Explorers

La Salle ranked fifth in the latest USTFCCCA Mid-Atlantic Coaches Poll (Oct. 15) and has been a fixture at that position for the majority of this season. Its placement is the highest of any A-10 school in the region.

Defending A-10 champion Alfredo Santana has run with a vengeance this season in hopes of defending his individual title from a year ago. The senior finished in the top five in three races this season, including a first place finish in La Salle's dual meet vs. Penn and the George Mason Invitational. He placed fourth at the Main Line Invitational and crossed the finish line 76th (316-runner field) at the Wisconsin adidas Invitational in the most treacherous regular season cross country meet in the country.

Santana expects a lot from himself this weekend and believes the conference field will present him with an enormous challenge.

“Individually my goal is to win the race, Santana said. “Aside from that I want to compete tough and make sure I get the best outcome so I can help the team score the right amount of points needed for us to win.

“The A-10 has gotten very tough individually over the last couple of years with a lot of rising talent and more schools as well, so I want to represent La Salle in the best way possible.”

Santana believes his team is prepared and will rise to the occasion on Saturday.

“As a team I feel that we are as confident as we have been all season,” Santana said. “We believe in what we have been doing and trust that it was the right preparation we needed in order to accomplish our goals here at the A-10 championships.”

“The team's expectations are to win the meet,” he noted. “We train at Belmont at least once a week and are very familiar with the course. Seeing to this we want to make sure we do the best we can in defending our A-10 title and bring another one back to La Salle this year.”

Santana's right hand man, junior Vince Perozze, has cemented himself as La Salle's number two runner throughout the course of the season. Perozze has twice been the second Explorer to cross the finish line this year and has three top-10 overall finishes.

Underclassmen Nico Greco, and Ian Barnhill have put together strong seasons for La Salle and will be counted on to perform well on Saturday.

Scouting the Field

The additions of Butler and VCU this season have arguably made the A-10 the best it has ever been in cross country. Butler ranked sixth in the latest USTFCCCA Coaches Poll in the Great Lakes Region and sports two of the conference's most talented runners in Ross Clarke and Tom Curr.

Six more A-10 schools appeared in the latest USTFCCCA Regional Coaches Polls, ensuring a highly competitive meet on Saturday.

Saint Joseph's – seventh (Mid-Atlantic Region)
Duquesne – eighth (Mid-Atlantic Region)
Richmond – 13^th (Southeast Region)
Temple – 13^th (Mid-Atlantic Region)
Dayton – 15^th (Great Lakes Region)
Massachusetts – 15^th (Northeast Region)

Up Next

La Salle will compete in the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional Championships on Friday, November 9 in State College, Pa.