Women's Cross Country Captures 2010 NEAC Championship
The SUNY Cobleskill Women’s Cross Country team captured their second consecutive North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) Championship on Saturday afternoon by posting a team score of 30 points to better a field of 10 teams at the league’s 2010 championship meet hosted by Penn State Berks in Reading, Penn. The Fighting Tigers become the first women’s team in NEAC history to win back-to-back titles since the conference’s reconfigured in 2005.
“We are extremely proud of what our women’s team accomplished today and all of the hard work that they’ve put in this season,” said SUNY Cobleskill Head Coach Mitch Tomaszkiewicz. “One of our major program goals each season is to win the NEAC Championship and today we’ve done just that. Now we’ll get ready for the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Championships next weekend and beyond that start looking toward the future and what it will take to once again win the NEAC title next year.”
The Fighting Tigers dominated the field by placing a program record six runners on the All-NEAC Team led by senior Ryan Kelly of Verona, N.Y., a First Team NEAC honoree, who placed third overall by covering the hilly 5000 meter venue in a time of 20:11 and by fellow senior Christine Tylee of Farmingville, N.Y. who also earned First Team NEAC honors by placing fifth in the race with a time of 21:07.
Rounding out the team scoring was a trio of Second Team All-NEAC selections as freshman Samantha Moade of DeRuyter, N.Y., placed eighth overall in 21:34, senior Kim Bottomley of DePew, N.Y., finished ninth in a time of 21:38 while sophomore Victoria Kodak of Wappingers Falls, N.Y., placed tenth in the field with a time 22:17 to help the orange and black take the title. Freshman Beth Watson of Dansville, N.Y., was also an All-NEAC honoree placing sixteenth with a time of 22:33 to earn a place on the league’s Third Team.
SUNY Cobleskill also had two additional team members break into the top half of the 70 runner field as freshman Kara O’Connor of Easthampton, Mass., placed twenty-eighth in 23:39 and freshman Katie Woodworth of Cazenovia, N.Y., finished thirty-first with a time of 24:08 as the team had a league record number 15 participants finish the event.
The Fighting Tigers will next be in action on Saturday, November 6 when they close the 2010 season at ECAC Division III Championships to be hosted by the organization at Colt State Park in Bristol, RI beginning at 11 a.m.
