BOSTON – The Vermont Catamounts men's and women's cross country teams continued the 2019 season with a Friday afternoon meet at the Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown.
The UVM women (361 pts.), led by
Bel Sogoloff, finished 12th in the 5k team competition.
John Benner paced the Vermont men (400 pts.) in the 8k as they finished in 17th place.
RELATED LINKS
Final Results: Women's 5k | Men's 8k
COACH'S QUOTE
"Today was just OK," said head coach
Matt Belfield. "I am pleased that we showed poise in a very competitive environment, but we definitely have a few things to clean up. I am optimistic that we will be better next time out as we continue to adapt to training and get a couple people more 'race ready'. I was very pleased with Bel's strong race from start to finish and John is certainly ahead of where he was last year.
Shannon Lustiber was excellent in the open race as well. Another big test at the Paul Short Invite in a couple weeks that will be a chance to show our strength and depth better than today."
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Sogoloff (18:31) registered a 55th-place finish and was closely followed by Meaghan Alba (18:36) in 61st place.
- Phoebe Koski (18:49) took 72nd place overall while Jane Leighton (19:06) and Konstanze Wendeln (19:07) rounded out the Vermont scorers with respective finishes of 86th and 87th.
- Benner (25:27) and Ian Denis (25:38) were the first two Vermont men to cross the finish line with 62nd and 74th-place finishes, respectively.
- Tyler Marshall (25:53) registered an 85th-place finish and was closely followed by rookie Andrew Crompton (25:55) who was 89th overall. Matt Hynes (26:00) rounded out the UVM scorers in 96th place.
NOTES
- Lustiber was the top Vermont finisher in the Open 5k race with a time of 19:15.2.
- Benner's 62nd-place finish was 30 spots higher than the top finisher from the Vermont men at last season's meet.
- The UVM women matched their finish of 12th place from when they last competed in the Coast-to-Coast in 2017.
WHAT'S NEXT
The Vermont men's cross country team heads to Middlebury College on Saturday (Sept. 21) for the Aldrich Invitational. The 8k race is scheduled to start at 10 a.m.
