College Cross Country

Rider at Monmouth Invitational

HOLMDEL, NJ—The Rider men placed fourth of eight teams and the Rider women placed fifth of nine teams at the 20^th annual Monmouth Invitational, held at Holmdel Park Saturday.

Host Monmouth won the men's race, while Quinnipiac won the women's race.

For the Rider women senior Emily Ritter (Millsboro, DE/Sussex Tech) finished first overall, the second time this season in as many races she has finished first overall. Ritter covered the 3.1 mile course in 18:34.2.

"Emily ran a great race,” said Rider head coach Bob Hamer. “She ran the race plan exactly the way we talked about it. She was conservative early on and in the last 1,000 meters she picked her spot and went after it. The last mile she took over.”

For the Rider men, senior Anthony Dentino (Sewell, NJ/Washington Twp.) finished first for Rider, second overall, covering the five mile course in 26:22.8. Dentino was the first overall finisher at the Monmouth Invitational last year.

“Anthony executed the race plan,” Hamer said.  “The kid from Monmouth got out early and had a big lead on everyone. I held Anthony back until there were about two miles left before I let him go after him. I probably should have let Anthony go a little sooner, but we stuck to the plan. Anthony looked very good and ran the race we wanted him to run it.”

Also for the Rider women, junior Nicolette Mateescu (Kendall Park, NJ/South Brunswick) placed second for Rider, 10h overall, in 18:56.3. “Niky ran well,” Hamer said.  “She did a really nice job over the second half of the race.”

Sophomore Megan McGarrity (Philadelphia, PA/Saint Basil) placed 17^th of the 171 runners in a time of 19:26.0.

Also for the Rider men, freshman Danniel Belay (Gaithersburg, MD/Gaithersburg) was second among Broncs, finishing 18^th overall among the 156 runners in a time of 27:16.0. Junior Sam Knipper (Randolph, NJ/Randolph) was 22^nd overall in 27:23.9. Senior Dylan Hallahan (Wrightstown, NJ/Northern Burlington Regional) was 26^th in 27:27.1 and senior Nasser Zayer (Staten Island, NY/St. Peter's) was 32^nd in 27:42.4.

“We had higher expectations for the men,” Hamer said.”We were very aggressive over the second half of the race, which is good, but we were too far back to get back in it.”

Among the Rider women senior Josephine Boyle (Pleasant Valley, NY/Arlington) was 35^th in 20:04.5 and freshman Lexie Taylor (Sewell, NJ/Washington Twp.) was 47^th in 20:24.4. “The women ran really well,” Hamer said.  “Our top four or five ran well. We just have to keep improving.”

The Broncs run again October 4 at the Paul Short Run, hosted by Lehigh University.

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