NEW YORK – The Georgetown men’s team and the Providence women’s squad will defend their respective league crowns at the 2016 BIG EAST Cross Country Championships presented by Jeep Friday, Oct. 28, at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, N.Y.
The women’s 6K race will begin at 11 a.m. ET and the men’s 8K run will start at 11:50 a.m. St. John’s University will serve as the championship host. It will be the 13
th time the BIG EAST has conducted its championship at Van Cortlandt and the first since 2012.
The Providence women, who are ranked No. 4 in the latest USTFCCCA Poll, have won two of the last three BIG EAST titles and seven overall. Sarah Mary Collins, last year’s individual champion, returns to lead the Friars. A graduate student this fall, she won the 6K race last year at Kings Island, Ohio, with a time of 19:47.4.
The Georgetown men, who are ranked No. 23 nationally, edged Villanova by one point last year for the league title. Villanova’s Patrick Tiernan set a conference record by winning a third-straight individual BIG EAST crown. He covered the 8K race at Kings Island in 22:23.2. Tiernan won the race by over 21 seconds.
Historically, cross country is one of the BIG EAST’s most accomplished sports. Nationally, BIG EAST women’s teams have won four of the last seven NCAA national championships. Providence won the NCAA title in 2013. Villanova has won nine NCAA women’s titles, the last coming in 2010.
The BIG EAST Digital Network (BEDN) will produce a Championship Recap show for FOXSportsGo on Saturday at 1 p.m. ET. Pat O’Keefe will handle the play-by-play and BEDN Correspondent Megan O’Brien will provide analysis and conduct interviews with the top performers.
Men’s Preview
Tiernan, a senior from Toowoomba, Australia, has been brought along slowly this fall after a busy summer that included competing in the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. He has not competed in a meet this fall. Other than Tiernan, the Wildcats are a young squad. Redshirt freshmen Andrew Marston and Casey Comber have combined to be the team’s top two finishers in every meet this fall. The Villanova men have won six BIG EAST team crowns.
Georgetown has been led this fall by senior Scott Carpenter. He recently finished 13
th overall against a loaded field at the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational. His time in the 8K race was 24:07.0. Carpenter, an all-American in the steeplechase, finished sixth in the BIG EAST meet last year. Junior Christian Alvarado also has enjoyed a strong fall season for the Hoyas.
Providence finished third last year. This fall, the Friars have leaned on Hugh Armstrong, Julian Oakley and Stephen Robertson, who were the top three PC finishers at the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational. Oakley was the top Friar finisher in last year’s BIG EAST meet, taking ninth place with a time of 23:24.4. The Friar men have won 15 BIG EAST titles overall, but are looking for their first win since 2006.
Butler finished fourth last year with 97 points. This fall, freshman Euan Makepeace has been a top performer. He recently competed at the NCAA Pre-Nationals and finished with a time of 25:06.7. Junior Bobby Johnson was the top finisher last year, grabbing 20
th place (24:17.2).
Marquette took fifth place last year. In the NCAA Pre-Nationals, the Golden Eagles placed seventh against a strong field of 20 teams. Juniors Alec and Aric Miller, sophomore Brad Eagan along with emerging freshman Daniel Pederson have formed a promising nucleus. Alec Miller was the top finisher in last year’s championship, placing 28
th (24:33.3).
Creighton, which finished sixth last year, returns the top two finishers from the 2015 BIG EAST meet. Senior Eric Klein was 37
th with a time of 24:53.6, which still ranks as the second fastest 8K time in school history. Junior Jake Landreth was 43
rd (25:07.8.).
Xavier was seventh last year, one point behind Creighton. This fall, the Musketeers have had multiple runners post their best individual times. Seniors Grant Parrelli and Aaron Peterson are expected to be the leaders. Junior Garrett Knapik was the top finisher last year, placing 33
rd (24:48.2) with the ninth fastest time in school history.
DePaul wants to improve on last year’s eighth-place finish. Junior Chris Korabik has been the team leader in the last three races. He took 19
th at the recent Bradley Pink Classic with a season-best time of 24:57.0. Senior Alex Campanella has finished third or better on the team in all but one race this fall.
For Seton Hall, which finished ninth last year, the Pirates have had eight runners finish in the team’s top five this fall. Junior Bryant Cordova was the team leader twice and he finished third overall in the 6K Monmouth Invitational and the 8K Embry-Riddle Invitational. Senior Sean Kip has produced strong finishes, earning a top team finish at the Metropolitan Championship, which also run at Van Cortlandt.
Women’s Preview
Not only is Providence’s Collins, the defending champion, returning, but senior Lauren Mullins and junior Katie Lembo, who finished second and third, also are back. Mullins’ time was 19:47.2, 15 seconds behind Collins. Lembo finished in 19:50.6. In the 2012 BIG EAST Championship at Van Cortlandt, Collins finished second. Overall, the Friars had 26 points last year. Georgetown was second with 54 points.
Last year, the Georgetown women finished fifth, seventh and eighth individually. The Hoya women also won in 2012 at Van Cortlandt. Graduate student Andrea Keklak was the team’s top finisher last year, taking fifth place in 19:58.3. This fall, norm for the Hoyas has been a pack running strategy. Sophomore Josette Norris was the top finisher at the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational.
Villanova is ranked No. 22 in the USTFCCCA poll. The Wildcats took third last year with 86 points and are led by senior Angel Piccirillo and junior Siofra Cleirigh Buttner. They were the team’s top two finishers in the Paul Short Run and the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational. Piccirillo was 21
st (20:33.5) in last year’s BIG EAST meet. Cleirigh Buttner has been All-BIG EAST the last two seasons and took ninth last year (20:06.6). The Wildcats are also counting on sophomore Bella Burda, who was fourth last season in the BIG EAST meet with a time of 19:52.9.
Xavier took fourth last year, the best BIG EAST performance since the Musketeers joined the conference. This fall, the Musketeers are led by junior Madeline Britton, who is the team’s top returning BIG EAST finisher. She was 18
th (20:29.1.). Sophomore Gina Genco is coming off her best time (21:56,4) produced at the Bradley Pink Classic.
Butler was fifth last year. The Bulldogs have been led this fall by senior Katherine Turner, who finished 15
th in the recent NCAA Pre-Nationals with a time of 20:29.6. In last year’s BIG EAST meet, she was 13
th (20:13.3). Freshman Josephine Thestrup is coming off a promising performance at the NCAA Pre-Nationals with a time of 21:02.7.
Marquette was sixth in last year’s BIG EAST event. This fall, graduate student Kellie Greenwood has been a top performer, though she missed the NCAA Pre-Nationals due to illness. Senior Brittney Favor was MU’s top finisher last year, placing 10
th with a time of 20:07.1.
Creighton will be trying to move up after finishing seventh last year. The Bluejays have their top four finishers from last year – Lauren Ogg, who was 15
th (20:22.4), Emily Martin, Maddie Ivy and Megan Paule. This fall, Martin has been the top finisher in all four of her meets. The sophomore ran the second fastest 5K in school history (17:13.96) at the Chile Pepper Festival at Arkansas.
DePaul finished in eighth place last year. The Blue Demons are led by a pair of seniors, Paige Skorseth and Courtney Tedeschi. Skorseth has led the team in four of the five races this fall with Tedecshi grabbing the other top finish. Tedeschi was the top DePaul finisher last year, placing 41
st (21.26.6).
St. John’s was ninth last year. This fall, the Red Storm are extremely young led by sophomore Antonia Howard, who has finished first for the Red Storm in all four races this fall and finished in the top five overall in each meet, including the Metropolitan Championships. Sophomore Elizabeth Costantino has shown promise with a pair of top-10 finishes in the last two meets.
Seton Hall wants to move up from last year’s 10
th-place finish. Junior Christiana Rutkowski has rebounded from missing all of 2015 because of injury, to lead the Pirates in four of her five meets. In her career, she has been the team’s top finisher in 11 of 12 races. Sophomore Kiley Britten was the top finisher at last year’s BIG EAST meet.
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