College Cross Country

Rider at Fordham Fiasco

BRONX, NY-The Rider women placed second of four Division I teams and the Rider men were third of six D-I teams at the Fordham Fiasco, held in the rain Saturday at the Van Cortlandt State Park.

"They broke the race up into Division I, Division II and Division III," said Rider head coach Bob Hamer. 

Yale won both the men's and women's races. The Rider women placed ahead of Fordham and Saint Peter's among the D-I teams.  "I don't know if we've ever beaten Fordham before, so I'm excited about that," Hamer said. "I was really happy for the women with six in the top 18."

For the Rider men, sophomore Anthony Dentino (Sewell, NJ/Washington Twp.) placed third, covering the 5.0 mile course in 26:18.  "He ran really well," Hamer said. "The men were a little more spread out, but Anthony is off to a great start. The first two races he has done all the things we talked about him doing. Today he got out with the leaders and after the back hills it was him and six Yale runners. He stayed with most of them, and he was a little disappointed that two of them got away, but he ran a great race."

For the Rider women, senior Megan Elgin (Doylestown, PA/Central Bucks East) was sixth, covering the 3.1 mile course in 19:24. "I was definitely pleased with the way the women ran," Hamer said.  "Our game plan with Meg was to get up with the leaders and test herself and she competed admirably."

"This is my favorite course," said Elgin, who finished second overall last year (19.02) in the finest cross country race of her career.

Also for the Rider women, senior Jillian Shutt (Lawrenceville, PA/Williamson) was ninth in 19:48, sophomore Emily Ritter (Milsboro, DE/Sussex Tech) was 14^th in 20:08, senior Nicole Tassello (Suffern, NY/Suffern) was 15^th in 20:09, senior Paige McAtee (Massapequa, NY/Massapequa) was 17^th in 20:21 and freshman Nicolette Mateescu (Kendell Park, NJ/South Brunswick) was 18^th in 20:28.

Also for the Rider men, senior Sean Donohue (Cliffwood Beach, NJ/Matawan) was 11^th in 26:55, junior Corey O'Neill (Old Bridge, NJ/Old Bridge) was 15^th in 27:16, sophomore Nasser Zayer (Staten Island, NY/St. Peter's) placed 23^rd in 27:28 and junior Billy Hackmeister (Coatesville, PA/Coatesville) was 29^th in 27:55.

Rider is now off until September 28 when the Broncs compete in the Paul Short Run, hosted by Lehigh University. "We get to have a nice two, three week training period before Paul Short," Hamer said, "so we're hoping to improve during that time and be very competitive at Lehigh."

-ru-