Sept. 15, 2007

2007 CCSU Ted Owen Invitational Women's Results

2007 CCSU Ted Owen Invitational Men's Results

NEW BRITAIN, Conn. (September 15, 2007) - The Sacred Heart men's and women's cross country teams ran at Stanley Quarter Park in New Britain Saturday afternoon, competiting in the Central Connecticut Ted Owen Invitational. The Pioneer men came home with a second place finish in the event while the SHU women ran fifth.

"This was a great day for the Sacred Heart University cross country program," stated head coach Christian Morrison. "It's early, but both teams performed extremely well today and set a positive tone for a successful season."

On the men's side, Sacred Heart had a pair of runners in the top-10 and four runners in the top-20 as they finished with 71 total points, behind Quinnipiac who won the event with 49 team points. The men picked up wins over Boston University, Mount St. Mary's and Monmouth for the first-time ever and also finished ahead of six Northeast Conference schools. SHU was picked ninth in the preseason coaches poll.

"When our men were picked to finish 9th in the NEC preseason rankings, we all knew we could do better than that. Now some other people know it too."

Leading the way was the tandem of juniors David Jones (Ballston Lake, NY) and John Kenworthy (Gloversville, NY) who finished up sixth and seventh, respectively. Jones ran the 8K course in 26:36 with Kenworthy right on his heels in 26:37. Jones and Kenworthy ran faster than any SHU athlete ever on the Stanley Quarter Park course. The Previous best was Matt Uzenski in 2002 (26:41).

Picking up top-20 finishes were junior Luis German (Southampton, NY) and freshman Andrew Houghtalen (West Charlton, NY). German ran in 15th place finishing in 27:01 while Houghtalen finished 18th clocking in at 27:11. Rounding out SHU's scorers in the race was sophomore Ryan Murdoch (Niantic, CT) who was 25th in 27:23. German, Houghtalen, and Murdoch ran the 4th, 5th, and 6th fastest times in program history on this course. Houghtalen was the top-freshman runner to finish in the .

Overall, the Pioneer's top-14 finishers all ran personal bests and SHU had more men (12) under 29 minutes than ever before in program history. The Previous best was 11 at the New England's in 2003. SHU's top-five finishers all moved up on the all-time list for cross country. Jones is now the #7 performer in school history, Kenworthy #8, German #10, Houghtalen #15, and Murdoch #16. Houghtalen is now the #4 freshman in program history.

The women finished 5th overall with 124 total points while the Bobcats also took the women's race with 47 total points. The Pioneers toped six other Northeast Conference schools in the race.

"Our women's team is awfully young. In this race we had four freshmen and two sophomores in our top six, but they showed they're ready for college competition today."

The Pioneers were led for the second-straight week by freshmen Kimberly DeLoreto (Hillsdale, NJ) and Dana Troy (Lebanon, CT). DeLoreto finished seventh with a time of 18:20 while Troy finished ninth crossing the tape in 18:23. The duo were the top two freshmen in the race with DeLoreto running the second fastest time by a SHU athlete ever on this course and Troy the third fastest. Only Katie Wrinkle (18:02) has run faster, recording that time while finishing second in the Northeast Conference Championship in 2002.

DeLoreto, in only the second cross country race of her career, became the fastest freshman in SHU history with Troy right behind her. They surpassed Katie Wrinkle (18:49), Kathleen Henry (18:50), and Heather Stockton (18:51) in the record books.

Fellow freshman Samantha Troy (Lebanon, CT) finished 33rd overall with a time of 19:13. Rounding out the top-seven was sophomore Sarah Tencza (Succasunna, NJ) was 37th (19:19), sophomore Theresa Campbell (Colonia, NJ) was 57th (19:47), freshman Erin McPherson (Marlborough, MA) was 59th (19:54) and junior Mary Coakley (Plattsburgh, NY) was 67th (20:18).

The Pioneer's top-10 finishers all ran personal bests. Samantha Troy now ranks as the 6th fastest freshman in school history, and Erin McCarthy is #16. DeLoreto also became the #3 performer in school history, behind Wrinkle and Henry, and Dana Troy moved to #4. Also, Samantha Troy moved to #12. Sarah Tencza, who is recovering from mononucleosis, ran a 20 second personal best to move to #15 on our all-time list. Theresa Campbell moved to #24.

Our top-five finishers recorded an average time of 19:00.24, the fastest top-five average in program history, surpassing the previous best of 19:04.52, which was set on this course in 2002 in the NEC Championships.