College Cross Country
Rider at IC4A/ECAC Championships
Rider Men 15th of 19 / Women 12th of 23
Gonzalez Wins the Men's Race

BRONX, N.Y.- The 2010 Rider University cross country season came to an end Saturday, for the men at the 102nd running of the ICAAAA Championships and for the women at the 26th ECAC Championships, held at Van Cortlandt Park.

For the Rider men, senior Christian Gonzalez (Somerset/Fraklin Twp.) won the race, covering the five mile University race in (24:52.7).

"Chris was coming off what was an extremely upsetting and disappointing performance for him at the NCAA Regional's," said head coach Bob Hamer.  "I thought he could go one of two ways, continue to feel sorry for himself or go out there and compete hard and he went out there and competed hard and he won.  I am really proud of the way he bounced back."

For the Rider women, senior Chelsea Callan (Hazlet/Raritan) finished 22nd out of 209 runners with a time of (19:00.8).

Also for the Rider men, senior Michael Soroko (Kinnelon) finished 29^th (25:40.7), sophomore Sean Donohue (Cliffwood Beach/Matawan) placed 97^th (26:44.8), sophomore Sean McCullough (Plymouth Meeting, Pa./La Salle) finished 110^th (26:55.6), freshman Billy Hackmeister (Coatesville, Pa./Coatesville) placed 154^th (28:10.8), sophomore John Hill (Voorhees/Eastern) finished 156^th (28:18.4), freshman Avery Schofield (Galssboro/Delsea) was 159^th (28:35.9), and sophomore Josh Frake (Bristol,Pa./Bristol) was 162^nd (29:37.7).

"I was really proud of the effort today," said Hamer.  "I felt like the guys really competed hard."

Also for the Rider women, sophomore Jillian Shutt (Lawrenceville, Pa./Williamson) finished 58^th (19:42.9), sophomore Erin Fitzgibbons (Sayreville) placed 59^th (19:43.4), sophomore Paige McAtee (Massapequa, N.Y./Massapequa) finished 98^th (20:17.7), sophomore Nicole Tassello (Suffern,N.Y./Suffern) was 103^rd (20:21.4), and junior Kelli Kaelin (Pinelands Regional) was 177^th (21:48.7).

"I was really happy for the women," said Hamer.  "We ran consistently hard as a team and we got a really great result.  We got out well.  They finished really strong so I was really happy about that.  We have a young team and hopefully they will use this to springboard for great things coming up in track and field."

-ru-