Sept. 30, 2006

2006 Fairfield Invitational Men's & Women's Results

FAIRFIELD, Conn. (September 30, 2006) - The Sacred Heart men and women's cross country teams took home team titles Saturday afternoon across town in the 30th Annual Victor Leeber Fairfield University Invitational. The women took their third-straight Fairfield Univ. race and eighth overall as a program. The men won their second Fairfield Invitational and their first since 2003. The double win marks the first time in Sacred Heart history both Pioneer teams have won races on the same day.

"What an exciting day," commented head coach Christian Morrison. "We've got more important meets coming up, but it's great to see the team reaping the rewards of all their hard work."

Sacred Heart's Kathleen Henry (Basking Ridge, NJ) captured the individual title for the women, leading the race wire to wire with a time of 18:32.4, toping her time from last year's race by 18 seconds. The win is Henry's first collegiate individual title and her sixth career top-five finish.

Teammate Katie Duffy (Monroe, CT) was the runner-up in a time of 19:04.1 notching her sixth top-five finish as well. The Pioneers captured the women's team title with 24 points followed by Siena (53), Fairfield (75), St. Francis (100), NJIT (154), St. Peter's (156).

The Pioneers placed three other runners in the top ten and their top-seven runner were all in the top-15 in the race. Senior Anne Duffy (Monroe, CT) finished fourth with a time of 19:51.3 to pick up her second career top-five finish. Freshman Sarah Tencza (Succasunna, NJ) claimed the second career top-10 finish of her young career coming in eighth with a time of 20:21.8.

Sophomore Brooke Palmer (Portland, OR) took ninth with a time of 20:58.3 to claim her first top-10 finish. The top-seven was rounded out by freshman Theresa Campbell (Colonia, NJ) in 12th (20:44.9) and senior Julia Mahoney (Topsfield, MA) in 15th (20:58.3).

The Pioneers also captured the men's individual title as sophomore David Jones (Charlton, NY) captured the race in a time of 26:50.7 to claim his first individual win and the first for a Pioneer since Matthew Uzenski won the Fairfield race in 2002 and 2003. Jones finished 26th last year in 28:58. He trailed Darren Legare of Siena the whole way but came from behind in the last 1/2 mile to win going away. His time was a personal best by 38 seconds and also marked his first career top-five finish.

SHU had five runners in the top-10 and six within the first 15 to cross the finish line. Behind Jones was sophomore John Kenworthy (Gloversville, NY) in fourth place in a time of 27:35.5, a personal best by 27 seconds. Right on his heels was freshman Ryan Murdoch (Niantic, CT) in fifth at 27:36.9.

In seventh was freshman Brendan Rickert (Danbury, CT) clocking in at 27:52.5. Rounding out the top-seven runners was sophomore Joseph Palma (Gladstone, NJ) in 10th (28:15.1), junior Stephen Zito (Guilford, CT) in 15th (28:30.8) and senior Robert McDermott (Lindenhurst, NY) in 22nd (29:07.0).

In addition to Jone's first top-five, both Kenworthy and Murdoch recorded their first-ever finishes in the top-five. Rickert and Palma both notched top-10's for the first time in their careers.

In a rare occurrence, Siena and St. Francis (NY) both finished with 52 team points, but due to the tie-breaker, Siena was awarded second place while St. Francis received third place. Rounding out the group was Fairfield (93) and St. Peter's (147).

Both SHU teams will return to action on October 7th at the New England Championships at Franklin Park in Boston, Massachusetts. The race will start at 12 noon.