Oct. 29, 2004

FAIRFIELD, CT - (October 29, 2004) - The Sacred Heart University men and women's cross country teams are geared up and ready to go for Saturday's Northeast Conference Championship at Quinnipiac University. Both teams have prepared well, putting in the long hours and hard work needed to come up with their best effort in the season's top race.

"Our preparations for the championship have gone very well, and I expect both our men and women's teams to have strong races," stated head coach Christian Morrison. "The kids are excited to show what they can do in the meet. We plan to put a punctuation mark on our season with successful races."

The women will be led by sophomore Katie Duffy (Monroe, CT) who is in the midst of a breakout season. Duffy has three top five finishes on the year, including an individual championship at the Fairfield Invitational to her credit. The sophomore sensation ran a personal best time that day, covering the 5k race in 19:13.8. One of Duffy's top-five finishes came on the exact same course she will run on Saturday. She posted a fifth-place finish at the Quinnipiac Invitational on September 24th running the course in a time of 19:24.1.

Backing Duffy up on the course will be juniors Jenna Pisani (Vernon, NJ), Erin Kulasewski (West Warwick, RI) and Kaitlin Clark (Babylon, NY) and sophomore Anne Duffy (Monroe, CT). Pisani and Kulasewski are coming off solid finishes at last week's Collegiate Track Conference Championship and have two top-10 finishes on the year apiece. Pisani had her best finish of the season at the Fairfield Invitational with a seventh place effort but ran her fastest race of the year at the New England Championships in Boston, MA in 19:13.

Kulasewski had her best finish and time at the Fairfield race, placing sixth overall with a time of 19:46.7, a personal best, to help the Pioneers secure the overall team championship that day. She finished ninth at the CTC race a week ago. Clark had her first top-10 of the year last weekend when she finished the race in a time of 20:32.69, good for 10th overall. Clark's best time of the year was 20:13.4, also a personal best, at the Fairfield Invitational. Duffy has come on strong of late, racing her fastest time of the season in her last race, the New England Championship. She clocked in at 20:32 during that race.

Junior Tyler Arnett (Clinton Corners, NY) has been a staying force for the men's team all season as he looks to continue to pace the Pioneers heading into tomorrow's race. Arnett has been SHU's top runner in each race this season and picked-up a top-10 finish at the Fairfield Invitational. His fastest time of the year came at the New England race where he crossed the finish line in 27:20. His time of 27:36.6 at Fairfield was good for a sixth place finish.

Also on pace for strong races are juniors Robert Gill (Braintree, MA) and Robert Howard (Levittown, NY) and senior Michael Hannon (Stony Point, NY). Gill ran his best time of the year at Fairfield at 27:46.1, where he also had his top-finish in 12th place. Howard ran his best time of the season his last time out at the New England Championship. He clocked in at 27:50 and finished as the Pioneers second runner that day. Hannon, who will race in his final NEC Championship on Saturday, also picked up his fastest time in his last race. His time of 29:18 was a season best at the New England Championships a few weeks ago.

The women have finished in second place as a team the last three seasons and have never finished lower than third in the race since joining the conference in 1999. The men finished fifth last season, their best-ever finish in their five years in the NEC.

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